Chelsea. It wasn’t ever thus. There was once a time when the word evoked a different series of meanings, conjured other images. Fashionable clothes, big side burns, walking down the Kings Road, colourfully clad pensioners with shining medals and long memories, Charlie Cooke, John Hollins, Alan Hudson, the Chelsea Drugstore (architecture meeting modern art on the corner of Royal Avenue and Kings Road), students and the Chelsea Flower Show. Everyone thinks their memories are embedded in a time of greater innocence, a halcyon era of a more simple, happier way of life, and I know I’m no different. However I do sometimes hanker for a time when there wasn’t this bitter loathing of other clubs. Did I despise Revie in the same way that Ferguson, Mourinho and Pulis make my lip curl today? Didn’t I used to look forward to a match, any match, regardless of the opposition? Maybe, maybe not, perhaps this is no more than an old man pining for his lost youth.
One thing not shrouded in a nostalgic rose tint is the fact that I was nearly a Chelsea fan. I know I’ve told you this before but it comes back to me each time their name appears on the fixture list. They played the hated Leeds United in the first FA Cup final I ever saw and I found I rather liked David Webb for putting away the winning header. Coupled with my first league game as a spectator being at the Dell where Southampton entertained Chopper Harris & co. and it is always possible I might have decided that Peter Osgood was better looking than John Radford, west was better than north and blue was better than red. Had the planets aligned in this way then these words would appear on Positively Chelsea and I wouldn’t be on speaking terms with any of you. Makes you think.
In any event I was never, not in a million years going to decide blue was better than red was I? While the papers shrieked about Chelsea Headhunters and bovver boot boys stalked the streets of West London my dad was quietly filling my head with talk of a different club, a club famous for innovation (under soil heating, son) class (marble, son, the halls were built of marble) and getting Bob Wilson’s autograph for me. When it came down to it Charlie Cooke was pretty cool but Charlie George was the single coolest footballer in the land. George Best? Not for me. When the other boys at school sang about Charlie being a superstar, they may have gone on to suggest he wears women’s clothes and a see through bra but I only heard the first line of their song.
So even though he was a Portsmouth fan, and even though he went to the Valley to watch Charlton Athletic when he moved to London, my dad steered me towards a life of vicarious voyeurism and masochistic joy as an Arsenal supporter. After the early seventies Chelsea never really showed up on my radar screen. It wasn’t until the silly money came along and put an end to the Ken Bates pantomime years that they surfaced as first a threat and later more of a torment. Their current manager is either trying to deflect media attention away from his troubled players or is genuinely coming unglued. I can’t tell which and frankly I can’t be arsed to give it much thought. He may be obsessed with Arsène but I’m not obsessed with him so let’s leave him to stew in his own juice and move on.
We have to travel to Stamford Bridge exhausted, dispirited and with our excellent return to form halted in Zagreb. The players had to complete much of Wednesday’s game with only ten men and our main striker Olivier Giroud is having a wretched start to the season. Replaced in the pecking order by Theo Walcott who is scoring goals for club and country with some regularity, our debonair French forward with the fine first touch and fluid passing skills was repeatedly fouled before being sent off for nothing in Croatia. Even here on what is supposed to be a positive supporters blog people prefer to blame our man rather than the referee. Honestly when a player loses the unflinching backing of the most one eyed, shamelessly partisan blog on the planet you know he is in trouble. What can be done? Well, personally I’d like to see him score a hat trick at lunchtime today but as he may not even start one wonders what he can do. Booed by sections of French support, wrongly castigated on-line at every turn by people who don’t deserve the eyesight with which they can’t see his strengths and the subject of endless transfer tattle as to who will replace him I struggle to remember a man less deserving of such opprobrium.
But football of course is a team game and the tribulations of one of our best players cannot derail the purpose of the whole squad. Per is still recovering from whatever evil spirit entered him but Aaron and ‘Ector should be fresh after putting their feet up while everyone else toiled and ultimately despaired in midweek. I don’t know how footballers do it but they have proved in the past that they can mentally compartmentalise different competitions. The Invincibles had a torrid time in the FA Cup and Champions league being knocked out of both by their two closest rivals but picked up where they’d left off in the league thrashing Liverpool in their next game. Can the current squad put the disappointment of Zagreb behind them and continue the progress they’ve been making in the league? Will Chelsea lift themselves for the big occasion in the way they’ve been unable to against so called lesser teams? These are the questions the answers to which should determine the outcome of today’s match.
Chelsea have problems, we all know that, they’ve made a shaky start to their league campaign but in the back of my mind there’s always the feeling of the beast cornered, never more dangerous than when wounded and underrated. Having said that we haven’t been riding a wave of perfect form, it’s been more a case of steady progress so I don’t think there is an air of over confidence. A draw would not be a surprise today as much as I’d rather see a few players add to an OG hat trick and give us a thumping victory, we need to temper our enthusiasm sometimes. The champions are not a crap team just because they have endured some crap results.
So two teams, both with points to prove to themselves and their fans after some unexpected reversals. Chelsea with home advantage Arsenal with the nicer fans, more intelligent manager and better looking players. Its in the balance really. They will kick us and dive and time waste and cheat as they always do, we will attempt to weave our magic patterns. It’s all a little predictable – all except the outcome. In total we’ve come away from Stamford Bridge having won 32 %, drawn 32% and lost 36% so history suggests we are more likely to get something than nothing. But as the famous football philosopher once said football is played on television not in the history books. Or something.
So, on that note I need to bugger off and leave you to your pre match routines while I start sticking pins in my Didier Drogba Diego Costa doll and polishing my lucky Arsenal mug. Not that I’m superstitious you understand, it’s just that, being entirely helpless to influence the result I feel a need to do something – anything – to appease the football Gods. I’ll be here to share the joys of victory with you, or should events unfold in confutation of this wholly desirable outcome then I shall retire gracefully into the shadows and pretend I never really liked football that much anyway.
Positively Arsenal 
I agree about Gabriel falling for Costa’s shit, Shotta, but the cunt should have seen a second yellow after bumping Koscielny. If the ref saw that little kick out, how the fuck did he miss Costa slapping Koscielny in the face repeatedly?
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a_o_b I don’t agree that Arsenal played well today, ok at best, Alexis, Walcott, Ozil, Ramsey and Cazorla were no where near their best at any point today. Our defense was doing fine when 11v11, but our creative side was not firing once again. Alexis has become so predictable, get the ball, feint that he is going left, turn back onto his right, and run into trouble, lose ball.
Coquelin was outstanding till his injury, lets all hope he is not out for long.
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I thought that a player making a gesture to the ref to card an opponent was meant to see that player booked, Costa done it a couple of times today, to add to his list of unpunished crimes.
I think today is the 5th time Arsenal have failed to score in a game v Chelsea with Dean as the ref.
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Howard Webb: “Costa is a lucky boy.” Says Costa did 3 red card offences in that first half incident alone.
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Daniel Cowan @thedanielcowan 2h2 hours ago
I’m massively looking forward to hearing the inventive new reasons for why this is Wenger’s fault.
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OptaJoe @OptaJoe 1h1 hour ago
0 – Diego Costa did not commit a single foul against Arsenal in today’s match. Zero.
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Julian Harris @attacktheball 43m43 minutes ago
Wenger on Costa: “He will do the same next week and the week after and he always gets away with it.”
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am I right in thinking that Cazorla and Gabriel only miss the COC game on Wednesday and not our BPL game v Leicester City next Saturday.
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Eduardo, you’re just wrong. We were playing well at the beginning. And all the players you slated? Doing well IMO. I thought we looked well up for it. You don’t give our players nearly enough credit. I may wear rose-tinted glasses, but I’d rather that than always finding fault.
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Just ‘shame’ ‘shame’ ‘shame’ on the ref…. appalling decisions, appalling ref. The FA really do need to look at this game and make some decisions. But they won’t because can’t have Chelsea being relegated now can we??? I AM FUCKING PISSED OFF>>> if anyone wants to argue with me… then fucking bring it on… at the moment I’m up for it. Can I do a banned thingy george…. because it won’t be a fucking smiley.
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can anyone confirm that Gabriel did get two yellows, and not a straight red for the second Costa incident, I’ve seen a few people say it was a straight red, which would mean a 2 or 3 game ban, two yellows is just a one game ban
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Yep. We should all blame Wenger for the inconsistency of the refereeing and for Gabriel losing his rag.
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Andrew any pen call in that incident had to be made against gabby by a Lino as it was a well disguised arm hook type thingy. If the lino was the opposite side they couldn’t see it. If they can’t see they can’t see that’s why you saw or heard no grumbles about the pen call missed by Moss last week not for the timing in the match or the score in the match but as with that previous pen call given for shirt pulling against OG at the same end in 2013/14 it was the lino’s call (under serious crowd pressure!), simply Moss couldn’t see that incident clearly.
Not sure how the ref or the fourth official who may or may not have sent a message during the first red missed the kick from Costa aimed at the Ox etc.etc.etc.
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The arm hook from Gabby would’ve made Baresi proud.
Shotta, Gabby shot to prominence with his duels against Costa in la liga.
In LA liga he was allowed by the officials to give as good as he got.
AFC are not allowed to be as physical as your average La Liga team.
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Costa was Yellowed at the time of the ‘incident’ so the FA can’t make a retrospective decision for a red for his behaviour against Kos or Paul Easter because the ref has made the decision already. Their hands are tied…. which is probably what Mr Dean aimed for. Bought by the Chavs……………… I wonder how much he got. I am still fucking angry…. we could have won that game but the FA deemed otherwise.
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We were not robbed, we were cheated. Plain and simple. No need for further analysis by anyone.
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OK George…. fair enough… lets talk about Cricket or even golf even maybe perhaps sorry 🙂 there I did it…
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I thought Chelsea played well. But no better than us.
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What’s so sad about the whole thing, George, is that I was genuinely excited about the game until the sending off. Open, pretty evenly matched, advantage swinging back and forth. I thought it could easily go either way. The perfect big game. Then…well you know the rest.
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Still cant get over it. I look forward to the day the Maureen f*cks off to his latest employee and doesnt come back, that guy is so conceited he actually thinks hes a the greatest manager ever, hes like some pantomime character.Dean should retire.Fabregas burnt his bridges forever today, bye love, see you in the next life,have a nice chat with racist Terry dont come grovelling to us later. I dont get how thats Wengers fault today? Strictly for the birds.Strictly for the effing birds.
Big laughs over at UA, Prince Hamlet turned up blaming Wenger and having a go at everyone.Big laughs like those wind-up chattering teeth. Strictly for the birds man.Strictly for the f*cking birds.
Must have been fighting after the game, Ive never seen everyone so angry on UA ever it must have been bad at the ground.
I think we would have beaten them today, and leading up to Santi red (he coughed near a player and got sent off) we were having a great spell,and an equalizer would have really destroyed them mentally. I thought we were containing the game relatively well in the first half until Gabs red changed the game.
What a farce.
Loons/asylum/taken/over.
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Mills – No loons taking over PA, not under George’s stern gaze at least.
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I know thats why I like it here.Its like an oasis. May the Gods bless George ever more!!
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so are BPL refs just inept, or are they corrupt or is it just that too many of them want to be the center of attention and want their mug on the TV as much as possible.
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potentially any of the three, at the moment only they personally know.
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so what are the views here on the selection for the COC game on Wednesday, how much rotation would you do or how much do you expect Wenger to do.
Gabrile and Cazorla suspended, Rosicky, Welbeck and Wilshere injured, Coquelin a doubt too.
I expect that Wenger will start the seven subs from todays game – Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Chambers, Arteta, Oxlade-chamberlain and Giroud. Per likely to return to the starting 11 too, that leaves one place in CM and two forward slots(CAM and WL), I think Flamini likely to take the CM place, I’d expect Campbell to start, and I think its likely that Iwobi will start too.
Ospina
Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers, Gibbs
Arteta, Flamini
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Campbell
Giroud
subs
Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Alexis, Walcott
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Cheers to northbank for making me smile with “Paul Easter”, I needed it.
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I shall post my Match Review at 10.00 BST
I am off to celebrate Mrs N.’s birthday
It is her I feel most sorry for
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so will Zouma be charged with this – of course not
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Japan have just beaten South Africa in the Rugby World Cup, amazing shock result.
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I imagine this is due to AFC beating spurs despite Dean’s best efforts, otherwise it would be 0%
JB™ @gunnerpunner 4h4 hours ago
Arsenal now have a 6% win rate with Mike Dean as referee. Should refuse to play with him as ref ever again.
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Arsenal Fan TV as usual made the whole Arsenal fan base look like muppets in front of cheering Chelsea fans. Disgraceful shower of attention seeking twats
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why is my comment awaiting moderation.
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West Ham hang on to win. Thank heavens for Wilfried Bony for 20 minutes of being useless. In response to the meedja and pundits, a big club plonks down big money to sign a striker who does not improve them. #Passenger.
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Trust the Salafists and Muslim extremists of Abu Dhabi to do anything to win PR points in the football media while they finance ISIS. Spent nearly £300 million on that City team and still lose at home vs West Ham. The gods are not blind.
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Steady Shotta.
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Steady I will George but facts are facts.
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Just to put a litlle smile on your faces.
https://twitter.com/90thMin/status/645308118889562112?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
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Sorry about that PG – I thought it would just be a link, not the whole thing imbedded.
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Ah hello. I kept refreshing my page but all I saw at the bottom was a comment by Shotta suggesting Arsène bring on Per. I thought it unimaginable that no one had anything to say.
All these hours later, (and a couple portions of consolation chocky cake), I suddenly thought, “open a new tab”.
Thanks for the .gif file of Giroud’s injury. It’s the best view I’ve had of it, and it’s on a loop. I can’t see stud contact on OG’s shin or ankle. I ‘played’ and ‘paused’ for some time.
I have to concede – I got this one wrong.
During the first 20 mins. I saw so much crap from Deano I knew which way the game would go. Apart from giving a penalty against ManC last season, this ref almost balletically screws us up. But he’s not alone. Indeed, he’s in the majority.
I see a photo of MOTM “youngthug” with his hands on Gabriel’s throat. I feel guilty for posting comments earlier about Barca’s hands on throats, and the whole thing about Arsenal having no chance if the refs are against them. Having said that, I urge you all to watch the full match replay on ArsPlayer or somewhere else. You’ll then see how by not carding Ivanobitch and others, earlier, Dean set up Arsenal to fail.
If you watch BT’s coverage you’ll see and feel the glee from presenter Jake and Ferdinand. (That’s the same ferdy that Kung fu kicked Sagna at old toilet, 5 yards from his mate Webby. Despite Bacary’s torn shirt and stud-bruised ribs, Webb merely sent him off to have a short change. Larf, yes). You’ll also notice that Howard Webb was quick to comment when Chelsea may have had a penalty, but failed to get or answer a direct question as to whether Costa should’ve been sent off. And of course, the plundits would only ever talk up Arsenal’s opponents.
It’s not that Santi’s first booking was entirely unwarranted, it’s that all of Chelski’s prior tackles were supposedly OK! With Santi’s 2nd card, you had proof that a tackle made by an Arsenal player is always punishable with the absolute highest sanction possible, despite their opponents making more dangerous/injurious tackles.
You might ask yourself why the whole football establishment will do anything to see Arsenal fail!
I’m excited to see the last 10 years of reffing be exposed for what it is – during my lifetime, and I think we will see it due to unsustainable moneys being paid for the TV rights. (Of course, if in the short term someone exposes what’s really going on, their lives will be under threat. It’s that bad).
Re: spuds game, I’d like to see strictly reserves/U21 players. The piss cup is simply not worth it. You should see how many assaults there have been on Arsenal players during the last two years, including the stamp on Theo, which Clattenburg saw and ignored, and which ended up with Theo out for more than a year. In the semi against Reading, they also stamped on Özil’s achilles. With the upcoming fixtures we shouldn’t risk our first choice players to injury and/or suspension.
I love Arsenal. (And Arsène). Keep your heads up, staff and supporters alike.
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*during the last two years of FAC games*
Though I think a good one to point out today is the league match at the Ems where Deano again watched from 5 yards as the McNair royally fucked Wilshere’s ankle. Mikey was very close. He just ignored it, like he did all of Chelsea’s cheating today.
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reports in france suggest coquelin is out for a month
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Finsbury: “The arm hook from Gabby would’ve made Baresi proud.”
He’s a good defender, isn’t he? He was playing like a panther before he was red carded.
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shoota’s comment about Bony at 7.46pm is extremely relevant. Here you can see the difference between a club with a bottomless chest of money who can just buy for whatever price in the hope that the player in question makes good. If he doesn’t (Jovetic, Negredo and others), they can just cut their losses and get rid. AFC can’t afford to do that – 200 miilion in reserve sounds like a lot but that’s not all available for buying players and with the ridiculous prices being asked nowadays, it won’t go far, so AW has to be sure.
Not a good week but also not the end of the world. I’m as concerned as the next man about only 5 goals in 6 games but the tide will turn. I agree with Rantetta about the CC game in midweek – not worth risking squad members on, even if it is Spuds.
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‘IT WAS A VERY FRUSTRATING AFTERNOON’
Arsène Wenger spoke to Arsenal Player after his side’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.
Here’s a transcript of what the manager said.
on a frustrating afternoon…
It was a very frustrating afternoon because we looked like we were in control. It’s frustrating to see Diego Costa staying on because it’s not understandable when you look at the whole situation. The fact that he doesn’t get a red card is unbelievable. That we got one on top of that, we have to look at ourselves because we are guilty. But Costa should have been off before Gabriel could respond to him.
on Arsenal’s performance before the red card…
We were quite in control and I felt that we were comfortable. Overall it’s difficult to lose a game like that.
on his side’s character…
We were good but we have to play now with 11 against 11. We lost the game in Zagreb with 10 against 11 and today we lost again. It’s always a mountain to climb and the regret I had today is that we conceded a goal from a set-piece when we were controlling them well. We conceded [from] a set-piece and that’s difficult to accept.
on putting things right at Tottenham…
Yes, we try but it’s the League Cup. We play on Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday and we have to see how we recover and how we go from there.
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/20150919/-it-was-a-very-frustrating-afternoon-#zTHSDBjtscIgeQyx.99
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Wenger on Coquelin “It is a little knee injury. I don’t know how long it will be. Certainly not for midweek. I don’t know yet how long.”
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I thought Chambers did well in the second half. Didn’t get drawn in to Costa’s niggling (although he’d cut it down a bit by then, having already got his victim) and stayed strong and positive. Some nice interceptions and tackles.
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What a beautiful weekend it turned out to be. City’s loss comes with the added bonus of shutting up all the dick faces who went insane after West Ham beat us in the opener. In the face, bitch.
Oh, and Mourinho can’t complain if he has the referees up him this season thanks to this incident.
I’m fucking ecstatic.
P.S. Carl Jenkinson is an incredibly gifted right back. Once we sell Debuchy, Jenko will come back home to be with his pal Oxo.
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That’s going to be our January signing. Enjoy the song.
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with the Rugby world cup on at the moment I thought many of you might like this little video explaining the basics of the game
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