Arsène Wenger cares about Arsenal far more than you do or ever will. He cares more about the club than the season ticket holder who goes to every game home and away. He cares more than the supporter conceived in the shadow of Highbury stadium and born on on May 26th 1989. How can I say this? Why do I think Arsène cares about the club even more than, say, his own career? Well, we all know he was offered well paid jobs at high prestige clubs with budgets managers dream of and turned them down. That tells us perhaps of his loyalty rather than how much he cares. The fact that he allowed his own reputation to be dragged through the mud by staying on through the financial crash as the new stadium drained his transfer budget to next to nothing, well, there is that.
The real reason I feel the way I do about the great man bubbled to the surface following a remark he made last week when being pestered about having young players on loan during an injury crisis. It was one of those ridiculous questions that even a British print journalist might shake his head at but which his editor will insist on anyway as it appears to cast Arsène in a bad light. The narrative boys and girls, stick always to the narrative.
Arsène cares more about the club than you or I because he cares about the entire club. You and I have no duty or responsibility to the players young, old, injured or fit we care only about winning the next game and finishing above Chelsea, Man United and Spurs. And you know what? That’s fine. That’s all we’re supposed to care about isn’t it? Arsène however has a duty of care to all of his playing staff not just the first teamers and he takes it seriously. Why? Because he cares about the club. Every nut and bolt, every single aspect of the development of players and the way that Arsenal FC is perceived in England and beyond.
When being quizzed as to why players were out on loan when they might be better employed with us covering our injury crisis he stated that when a youngster reaches the point in his development when he is ready for first team football you have to let him go. He isn’t going to sit on a whole bunch of lads who’ve been carefully nurtured since they were in short trousers when their career progression demands that they get regular game time. He feels a responsibility to these players and regardless of whether you or I want to see Chuba on the bench because suddenly we have two out of four central strikers out injured, Arsène has to care about the individual players as well as the first team.
He let’s them go and in doing so he lets them grow. And of course because he takes the long view and not just the short term nervy panic with which we approach each individual fixture he has the first team in mind as well as the player’s development. Would Francis Coquelin have come back to us as good a player if he’d sat on the bench hoping for a string of injuries to give him his chance rather than playing all those games on loan?
Either way Arsène is rightly seen as a father figure to his players, a man who nurtures and cares and it is hardly surprising so many footballers both the very best in the world and those showing early promise clamour to come and experience his guidance. How the squad will cope with their visit to Germany tonight is difficult to predict. In past seasons we have faced this kind of tough away fixture after torrid times at home in two legged ties. This time we travel on the back of an excellent home result without the imperative to go at them and get a win.
I’m not saying we should play for a draw from the start but it wouldn’t be a disaster and the players aren’t stupid – that will be in the backs of their minds. Expect Bayern to be up for it after getting taught a lesson at the Emirates on the last occasion that they faced us. They will be determined to straighten things out with us and will be buoyed up by our injury problems. Theo’s pace was a massive problem for the German side last time around and they would have been terrified of losing the ball every time they attacked if they’d known he had been lurking. Olivier Giroud poses a different question for defenders but his game relies on holding the ball for others to sprint past him which of course offers more time for the break away to be snuffed out.
With this in mind, might Arsène play Alexis through the middle with Joel alongside him and put another cog into the defensive machine maybe allowing Santi to drift to the left? Or maybe let Kieron play on the left and provide better defensive cover for Nacho? Joel certainly helps out effectively in defence and I’m sure Matty Debuchy would be happy to have him there. Arsène said in a news conference he dislikes pulling players out of position in this way as it disrupts the feng shui of the team. All right he didn’t put it quite like that but you catch my drift I’m sure. I doubt he’ll drop Olivier but it’s fun to play fantasy manager sometimes and wonder at the options.
The important thing is we defend once again as a compact unit, ferocious but restrained, tenacious but disciplined and with Cech back to his very best (at least one goal saving stop in each of our last four games and generally calm and reliable) we should have an excellent last line of defence.
My only concern right now is the same players getting hammered week in week out and then not getting a rest when the bloody internationals come along. As Arsène said Aaron needed a rest and Andorra would have been the perfect game to miss.
International managers literally do not give a flying fishes fart about the health of their players. Some people say why should they? They have a contract and a responsibility to win their games. Bollocks says I. Giving broken players back to their clubs time and again with a shrug because you know those clubs will pick up the bill for fixing them and anyway you won’t need them for a while by which time they should be ready for you to use and abuse again is no way for anyone with a shred of honour and dignity to behave. It isn’t good enough to talk about their contracts and their boss’s demands and their own interests, simply not good enough. Life is about more than narrow self interest otherwise why do we think so highly of Arsène? Because he is an honourable human being and not only for his success on the football field.
In any case I do wonder how the boss plans to rotate in the reserves in the more attacking positions in the coming games. He can’t destabilise the side with too many newcomers, we already have Joel needing to do nothing but improve every game. He can’t afford to drop his levels, we need to continue our momentum and he could have a big part to play in that. But others will need to be rested from time to time. Kieran and Calum can both do a job towards the end of a match in front of the full backs and Mathieu Flamini can come in while Santi steps up to replace Mesut but who stands in for Larry?
As Shotta said on Monday that man needs to stay fit and firing at least until the strains of Auld Lang Syne echo across the land. Even when Theo and Danny return from the sick berth they can’t be expected to dive right back in, they’ll need easing back. It’s a conundrum but one which you can bet the manager has considered and has planned for meticulously. Honestly how the man keeps going in the teeth of at least one major injury crisis every season I do not know. Imagine if another, more petulant, childish manager were faced with such genuinely bad luck, and then imagine if idiots both online and in the press queued up to imply it was somehow that manager’s fault that his players were injured – such a lesser man would be storming out of press conferences or issuing ‘no comments’ before you could blink.
So lets hope for a clean sheet tonight and no one added to the butcher’s bill. A modest wish for one so instinctively optimistic and positive as me? Well perhaps but I can temper my enthusiasm when the occasion demands it. I can’t for a moment imagine us going gōng hé at one of the best teams in the world in any case and neither can I see a keeper as good as Neuer fluffing his lines so spectacularly again so I would suggest my expectations are merely sensibly cautious. I’m still hopeful of a good result but I’ll settle for a point. Give me a win and you’ll be peeling me off the ceiling. I do however have one eye on Sunday’s game. The best team in Middlesex are always a tricky obstacle to overcome and I want everyone back in one piece for that one. Do I sound like I’m prioritising the Prem over the Champions League? Well, we all have our favourite players don’t we, so why not our preferred competitions?
I hope you enjoy the match and if you have the amazing good fortune to have travelled there in person have a wonderful evening, if not I’ll see you here at kick off.
Positively Arsenal 
Combative, coherent, and with just a dash of cheekiness
Stew opens match day in style
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Beautifully put, Steww.
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Thanks steww, I thought this was excellent and opened my thinking to what goes on at AFC and Arsènes love of the club in a way I hadnt thought of before, despite it being so obvious.
Hoping for the best tonight, and the ability to prove ourselves again in Munich,but Bayern were humiliated and will be after revenge.Better dig themselves a second gave?
COYG!
And hope all well with the Positivists.
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Two weeks ago, Tuesday, on the the eve of the Bayern game, for Steww’s radio show, I requested he play Small Axe by Bob Marley on behalf of the mighty Arsenal. Since then we have been decimated by three more injuries but as is evident in today’s blog we remain defiant and undeterred:
Why boasteth thyself
Oh, evil men
Playing smart
And not being clever?
I said, you’re working iniquity
To achieve vanity (if a-so a-so)
But the goodness of Jah, Jah
I-dureth forever
So if you are the big tree
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down
The tune was unplayed as Steww canceled the show in favor of the game as they both clashed. Maybe I should keep my thoughts to myself and leave well enough alone but win-lose or draw we are the small axe cutting down that Munich tree. Come on Arsenal!
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Gianluca Rocchi – remember the name – you may hear it a lot tonight
Last time you heard it was the Arsenal Galatasaray game – the home tie we cruised to a commanding first half lead and eventually won 4-1 – perhaps more notable for the red card for Szcz and Ospina’s busy debut.
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Please allow me to borrow a word you guys up there in the UK loves, “Blimey”.
You’ve outdone yourself in the first part Stew. Rightly giving the great man his dues. If those “scarfists” who aren’t allowed past the PA gates read just that, job well done. That in itself could’ve been a post all in itself. I salute you.
Re tonight’s game: I guess all we can do is hope for a favourable result, be it 1/3 points. If we come off 2nd best, who the hell cares, we can always cash in our chips, put on our blinkers and zone in on the PL. Well, there is also our defence of the FA Cup but those games aren’t midweek pains. And hope the CL distract the better team in Manchester.
Our injury list could be halved after the international break. Fingers crossed.
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For any who still have the energy to view ArsenalFanTV, I think evisceration is a much under-used word;
http://thesetpieces.com/features/pieces-of-hate-fan-tv/
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I am really blessed to join with intelligent fans who know reality and fact and support the sexy foot ball playing club on death. wow what well narrated post I have ever witnessed it is!! any win draw or loose gunners club who showed us king Henry for ever.
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Thanks Steww
“The best team in Middlesex”, that left me confused until I remembered that Watford is in Hertfordshire.
A point would be grand. Swansea had more possession on Saturday and I think it’s safe to say the hosts will see more of the ball tonight.
Last two trips to Munchen = 0-2 and 1-1.
Even if not groaning, like me many will be clucking and fretting about Munich getting ‘past Debuchy on the right hand side’ (& repeat!). But he’ll be fresh, the gaffer said he is fit which translates as “not carrying as much rust as on his initial return from injury”. At the start of last season he seemed pretty useful, hopefully he’s over his injuries and the big occasion is just what he needs.
My prediction is that he’s going to give Costa an early clump, he was quite good at those last fall. Hopefully the technique/calibration in the foul will be good enough to avoid the early yellow!
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Thanks for the “pieces of hate” link, A5.
Spot on.
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to Shotta because!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eciArkBTeBM
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Tonight’s “small axe” match winner…please select ONE:
a. Jeff Reine-Adelaide
b. Alex Iwobi
c. Joel Campbell
d. Calum Chambers
e. Kieran Gibbs
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Great again Steww,
A match preview and a more forward thinking piece all rolled into one.
Their are a few people who could lay claim to loving ARSENAL and all ARSENAL more than Arsene but there’s not many. They are usually the unsung hero’s who work tirelessly in many aspects of the club.
Normally the CL games has one night where the English teams do well and one where they do badly so I was not happy about the two results yesterday. So far things have been against us so I too would be ceiling climbing if we win, but I would certainly be happy enough if we draw especially if zargreb win
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I’m back
Not that anyone will have notice my absence
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Fine preview, steww.
(Well, until I got to “He let’s them go…” which ruined the whole thing for me.)
Good to remember that we’ve “been there, done that” but I don’t imagine this evening is going to be anything other than an extremely tense experience until the final whistle.
Bloody bad time for ‘ector to get injured. Let’s hope the cover we have means his absence will not be noticed.
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Well done young Stew (I assume May 26th 1989 is your birthday) – as ever you’ve nailed it. Most of the fans I have seen on Twitter today seem to think that we have no chance at all, which seems disappointing. In fairness I always assume we will lose every game the closer it gets to ko, which is all part of the hopeless agony of it all I suppose. If I was going to be ultra defensive and play for a 0-0 I would go for the greater solidity of Debuchy anyway, so I wish him all the best, and a speedy recovery for Hector from his sgp.
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FH: Sillery and Mark Members were having the annual rock bun eating competition before going to Lady Mollys for the evening,whilst listening to slander concerning a haughty toad called Kenneth Widmerpool and May 26th came up as part of the discussion, and then in one corner(left) Quiggin immediately shouted out ” May 26th 1989…its up for grabs now, Michael Thomas!!!”, and then went on shouting whilst rolling around on the floor, “boring,boring Arenal”. I wonder what Uncle Giles would make of everything?
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Robben is a sub tonight apparently…
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I see Karim Benzema is following in the time honoured tradition of footballers spending the night in a cell. Blackmail though – that is a bit more than your run on the mill DD or punching a bouncer.
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it is obviously going to be incredably difficult tonight, I was hugely impressed with bayern especially early on against us. However we have climbed moutains in europe before and Le Coq says “the team are ready”
We are the small axe COYG
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Benzy has previous, previous of hanging out with idiots at the least, the kind of previous that probably means that AFC were never, ever, interested in him though I could be wrong.
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well done stew as per usual….
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my question from yesterday still not yet answered
so if arsenal beat Munich tomorrow which position will they be in talking about head to head?
cos they would top Munich yet not Olympiacos and Zagreb on head to head
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Gabby in for Koscielny.
Kozza with a minor niggle hopefully the mid week rest and sitting on the bench for France (please deschamps!) should sort him out.
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He should still be starting on the weekend.
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Arsenal team to play Bayern Munich: Cech, Monreal, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Debuchy, Coquelin, Cazorla, Campbell, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud
substitutes: Macey, Chambers, Gibbs, Koscielny, Reine-Adelaide, Flamini, Iwobi
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/live#OaF1iVLuc89CmH4S.99
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Welbeck, Walcott or even Campbell to come off the bench against a tiring Martinez just back from injury would’ve been nice!
If the first sixty minutes are the same as the first game it could prove to be a special night for Iwobi or The Jeff.
COYG.
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Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team updates ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League match against Bayern Munich:
image: http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/images/nov_15/gun__1446510058_31115_mds1516_bay_afc_left_ad..jpeg
on the team news…
The team news is that, from Saturday’s squad, we lost Bellerin, who will not be available tomorrow night. We have nobody else back, so that means he has been replaced in the squad by Jeff Reine-Adelaide.
on Hector’s injury…
We have to wait a little bit. It’s not a big problem but it’s a small groin problem.
on Arteta, Ospina and other injuries…
They are all very close. I think Arteta will be back in full training on Friday, Ospina as well. After the break, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey [could be] back as well.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20151103/team-news-bellerin-arteta-ospina#LiIi7ookSzFFrBbP.99
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Crowley made his comeback for the U19’s today
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COYG! hang in there!!!!
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get in there!!!!!!! COYG!
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facking computers on the blink soz about that.
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hopeless defending sees Muller make it 2-0
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zagreb winning away to Olympiacos
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cazorla loses the ball too easily and alaba makes it 3-0
this has been mostly self inflicted
HT: Bayern Munich 3-0 Arsenal
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3-0 is about fair for that half of football,
Only complaint is that the ref is pretty much blind to the home side fouling.
Alexis needs to get involved.
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as things stand Arsenal will have to beat both Olympiacos and Zagreb by 2 goals or better to qualify. Not undoable at all, lets hope Zagreb hang on to their lead tonight
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Kind of hoped we might hang on at 2-0 for HT, and weather an early storm second half. Shame we can’t get a bit of control, as we looked early on like we might do something.
Hope we can put in a better SH and come away with a bit of dignity, thats a very strong display Bayern are putting in. I wonder if Wenger might take Joel off whose looked a bit off the boil tonight and bring on the Flam?
Anyway, its still not over yet…even if it looks it.
COYG!
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too many under performing so far, Cazorla not been in it at all, Ozil looks really up for it, but has little to no help, and really its been 3 very poorly defended goals we have let in.
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It’s looking a bit steep now but I am still hopeful of retrieving a point – as at the Ems the Germans will tire then Baaaam – we nick a couple of goals to set up a frantic last 10 minutes
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Stick at it lads and a chance will come.
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Fair play to Bayern though – they have done well, great finish for the first goal from Lewandowski
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4-0, more slack defending lets Robben score
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You’re making it a bit more difficult than I envisaged
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Yeah Eddy – if only our lads had your attitude they would have snuffed out any chance
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Ffs another chance goes begging – Bayern opened up again
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anicol surely you can’t deny our defending has been poor on all the goals
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Yes I can Eddy
Do you think we are playing some dipshit wankers from the evo stik league ?
These blokes know how to play football, score goals and get round even the best defence – don’t you get it ?
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Giroud scores, alexis with the ball in, Giroud takes it on his chest and volleys in
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Yeah Eddy – shit defending from Bayern eh ?
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