Good morning all Positives,
The NLD matched my expectations yesterday. 94 minutes of sporting combat, two good teams playing football, trying to win the game, every loose ball, every tackle, every header contested. Both sides coming into the game after a hard week’s football. By the end the game was always going to be matter of who had the stamina to endure. That is the way football should be played. No buses, no clawing at the opponent’s eyes, no shrieking when you are touched.
The opening ten minutes I thought we started well, but having huffed and puffed we had not managed to even rattle the windows of the Spuds house. Somewhat relieved they got back into the contest, began to knock the ball about with a bit of purpose and took the game to us. We seemed to shrink a little, Santi apparently “dizzy” (?). Sanchez and Campbell worked hard but with no end product. Not often you see a player as limited genetically as Kyle Walker have a good game when facing a player with the quality of Alexis. Olivier was locked out by Alderweild and Vertonghen. Not able to get boot to ball.
The goal came and, given the balance of play overall in the first half probably, a deserved lead. More disappointing was the lack of a single effort on target or Lloris required to make single proper save in the first half. Fair play to the visitors they were blocking every through ball, that we managed. On the few occasions we got to the edge of the box no one shot. As toothless as I can recall from us for a long time. Most odd.
A shrewd and seemingly necessary substitution brought the Flamster into the contest We immediately set about getting back into the game with more energy and that little bit of serrated Gallic steel the player has in his boots. Chances were created at both ends, Cech again saving well from Kane and Alderweild, Olivier centimetres out on three occasions.
No idea whether it was pure chance or shrewd tactics on the part of Arsene and his players but the moment we started putting in the high ball and putting the Spuds central defence under pressure they cracked. No reason it should have worked, as we are hardly kings of the high ball, but from being confident and in control at the back Tottenham lapsed into hysteria.
75 minutes gone and I was beginning to feel a little uneasy, with a second and probably decisive goal for Spuds looking as likely as an equalizer ! The introduction of Kieran Gibbs I admit did not quell the butterfly that was hatching. One glimmer of light was that Spuds were beginning to tire.
Fool that I am , you all saw Kieran put away what was a slightly scruffy finish. Walker nowhere to be seen. Scruffy counts just the same though. That I could have doubted for a MOMENT.
And for the final 17 minutes we had ‘em under the hammer, pressing forward against an increasingly desperate defence. Sanchez suddenly much more effectively playing inside. Mikel stroking the ball as only he can. Only one winner possible during that final phase but……… Our visitors mightily relieved when Atkinson below for the end. Even with multiple injuries we endured better than they did.
Fair result, both sides did enough to win so a point apiece the right result.
Good on our side ? Debuchy showed the quality he has, match sharp at last even if he ran out of gas a little short. Flamini again spoiled Spuds day, great effort from Giroud, never gave up.
For them ? I was impressed with Lamela – ridiculous I know but every dog has his day. Dembele was also a smooth, impressive operator.
Since the last international break we have played seven games, four wins, the draw yesterday and two defeats. Not perfect but pretty damn good.
Positively Arsenal 
I only saw it this morning Ian, but the potential of what they have discovered is just amazing and to think it was some ‘dumb’ footballer who was one of the brains behind it. I am well impressed.
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Gotta give Flamini credit. The supreme response to all those jackasses who tried to belittle him as a footballer and a person. He may not be the most talented but as a player he never f*cked over the club like the fan favorites such as Fraudegras and Van Prick (yes, they were once my favorites as well). Who was that idiot at ACLF who called himself IceCream something?
He is a professional footballer who whenever he was under contract gave his all to the club as evident by the fact he has never lost a game at the Emirates. Yes he is hardnosed when it comes to a contract and so it should be. It will serve him well in next career as full time businessman.
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*AlexIceCream* was the name. Veterans from those years will remember that the poster used Hleb’s signing with Barca as a way of attacking the club for not being able to spend big,completely ignoring the priority was to pay for a brand new stadium. Happened the same year Flamini signed for Milan. Sorry for the mix up with Flamini.
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shotta wasn’t it revealed earlier this year that Arsenal came within weeks of not being able to pay the players wages at the end of the Invincibles season, but hey “there was no financial restrictions”, we could have spent 100’s of millions more over the ten year period, as proved by the £200M in the bank. And of course that is why Wenger is mr evil and a disgrace for treating the club with its best interests at heart.
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Eduardo: Now you are understanding that this idiocy goes back a long way.
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To all of you who, like me, have been wondering all season, What ever happened to Kim Källström? – I have the answer!
He’s alive and kicking, this evening for the Swedish team – I gather he’s plying his trade with Grasshoppers Zürich these days. He set up a sitter for Zlatan which the great man pulled wide, but it’s 1-1 in that department between TGSTEL and him – the Lord B also missed one (then fell dramatically as if the defender had pulled his shirt – he did but after TGSTEL had fluffed the chance).
Half-time 1-0 to Sweden (neither TGSTEL nor TnextGSTEL involved – nice to know the other guys can manage without them)..
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Arsenal U18’s beat Brighton U18’s 3-1 today, Robinson (2) and Fortune with the AFC goals.
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http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12025/10067258/lassana-diarras-cousin-killed-in-paris-terror-attacks?
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The world is in a terrible state of chassis.
Sean O’Casey 1924
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the Mirror is reporting that Jack Wilshere is on course to be fit to return to first team action at Christmas
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http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/nov/14/football-arsene-wenger-doping-suspicions?
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Thanks eddy for your post about Beirut and Baghdad – we often need reminding of these different perspectives.
From a Danish point of view, the Beirut bombing was reporteded in the media here and also brought into a discussion about the Paris incidents which I watched last night.
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On another matter entirely, Flamini’s status as a potential billionaire, I found this on Wikipedia:
“Levulinic acid is used in cigarettes to increase nicotine delivery in smoke and binding of nicotine to neural receptors.”
So maybe he’s not as organically-friendly as reported.
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anicoll5 – your headline is now looking uncannily prescient, I’m afraid.
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But for one alert steward at the turnstiles Dk it may have been a headline to regret.
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what a laugh to see Jesse Lingard called up by England, will be 23 next month, he has so far played 5 league games for Man Utd, 1 goal, he has 8 games 1 goal in total, he has spent most of the last four season out on loan where he hardly set the Championship alight, Lingard getting called up follows Delle Ali getting capped after just 10 BPL games, just shows the poverty of either the players or the manager, or maybe both.
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so injuries cost Arsenal £20M last season, second most in the league, while CFC were the least affected at under £6M
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3318743/Premier-League-clubs-paying-price-injuries-racking-whopping-270m-bill-season.html
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Once again I know people want to carry on as normal in an act of defience against terrorist however I still think it’s a mistake to play the England/France game.
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can’t agree with you ian on that, for me you have to go on, continue as normal, or you might as well call off all events,
should the underground be shut down, after all far easier to blow up a bomb or many bombs on it, that at a match,
should the Euros be taken away from France,
should we give in, and turn on muslims, lets start with Ozil, get him out, in fact he is out of the country right now, lets shut the borders and keep his kind out. While we are at it, every non white anglo saxon should be shipped out and back to where they came from,
if I’m not mistaken less than 3% of all the worlds terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims, you have more chance of dying in a car accident than a terrorist attack, life must go on,
I would also say that from most of the coverage I’ve seen across the networks and the media the one thing not being delved into is the origin’s and reasons for ISIS, the part the UK, France, Russia and USA etc have played in not only setting them up, but arming them and actually giving them a cause. Oil, oil, oil, who has it, who wants it, and what they have done and will do to get it.
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https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12241775_1016249831751976_3001907928808363834_n.jpg?oh=3d468168cd495f6186d2702e93635bf6&oe=56EB7C98
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Eddy
No western Government or Intelligence Agency have been responsible for creating Da’ish.
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And in other news,
Rumours that Theo and Welbeck have had set backs on their recoveries appear to be false.
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Apparently next season we are going to lose Alexis to United but gain Messi from Barcelona. And in other news….
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I was surprised at the speed with which the French Federation said the match at Wembley would go ahead and it may be that Monsieur Hollande and his merry men may have picked up a phone to indicate the President’s view on the matter.
Having said that it seems a reasonable step to play the match, although football will probably be a minor factor in the evening’s events.
In anticipation and to allow for a practice my favourite version of Le Marseillaise
Sniffs loudly
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James Olley @JamesOlley 2h2 hours ago
Spoken to Theo Walcott’s camp this morning. Am told rumours of an injury setback are nonsense. Still planning for late Nov/early Dec return.
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‘I’M FEELING GOOD BUT I WON’T RUSH IT’
Jack Wilshere says he is working as hard as he can in his rehabilitation but “won’t rush” his return from injury.
The England midfielder has not featured for Arsenal this campaign after he suffered a hairline fracture to his left fibula at the end of pre-season.
It has been a testing time for Wilshere, who had been in fine form for club and country, but the 23-year-old insists he will remain patient as he seeks to get back to full fitness.
I’m not going to rush it – I’ll make sure my body’s right and at the moment I’m feeling good
Jack Wilshere
“It’s going well,” he told Arsenal Player. “I’m working as hard as I can to try to come back. I know what it takes because unfortunately I’ve been injured a few times in my career and I know what it takes to come back. I’m not going to rush it. I’ll make sure my body’s right and at the moment I’m feeling good.
“Mentally this one has been the toughest to take because I had a big injury last year, came back, got myself fit, back in good form, played for England. Then I cut my holiday short for two weeks and came in to try to get myself right for this season.
“I thought, ‘This season I need to be fit for the whole season and go into the Euros with a whole season behind me’. Unfortunately on the last day of pre-season I got injured so it was probably the toughest one for me to take.”
Wilshere has not had to go through rehabilitation alone, and the midfielder revealed how much he has benefitted from the support of team-mates Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky.
“We all know it’s difficult and just being around other people helps,” he said. “At the moment it’s me, Danny and Tomas because we’re the only ones with long-term injuries. Just being around other people, speaking to them and having a bit of banter with them helps as well.
“We’re still early in the season and the busiest part of the season is coming up. I want to be part of this team and I proved last season that I can get back and fight for a place. I know it’s not going to be easy but that’s what I want to do.”
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20151116/-i-m-feeling-good-but-i-won-t-rush-it-#AZQAqBslmMgoPeCp.99
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Reports that Alexis missed training with Chile due to a calf injury
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Will Benn @WengerBoy1 2h2 hours ago
2 players from the current squad are in Arsenal’s top 10 PL goalscorers (TW, OG) and 4 are in our top 10 for PL assists (TW, SC, AR, MO)
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Eds
re: doping.
There are further comments from AW this weekend.
He certainly is a very polite and cheeky chap. Smart too.
The manner in which he’s drip drip dripping this story towards the hungery hacks, it is interesting.
The longstanding problem which anyone who follows modern sport such as any and every professional 24/7 hack can understand is that in football the authorities have ONLY been urine testing the athletes. Sounds dumb, because it is dumb. But AW didn’t say it was dumb. Nope. He’s very polite!
For context; Arsenal Football Club have been following and applying WADA blood tests to their own players. This is how they found that Lauren, on arrival, had been doped with EPO back in Italy (I’m most defintely no expert in this area, very far from it, but I’m guessing that EPO didn’t show up in urine tests in 2001, if it does today?)
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Are AFC the only top flight Football club to have followed WADA guidelines and blood tested players? I don’t know.
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Right then it’s Ireland’s turn tonight – don’t mess it up boys
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Chile manager says Alexis has a sore calf but that he hopes that he will play in tomorrows game
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Akpom scored for England U21’s tonight in their 3-1 win over the Swiss
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Might Arsene’s comments about doping go some way to explaining the fact that we seem to have a greater number of injuries than some clubs? Or that it seems to take our players a while longer to recover from injury than some.
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Eduardo: any news on how Chambers played? Think that that young man is coming along rather nicely, and it wouldn’t come as the greatest surprise to see him captaining club and country in five years time.
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For five read eight: I’d forgotten how young he was!
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only report I seen on the U21 game said Chambers put in a composed display
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I watched the 2nd half of England Switzerland and Chambers and the home side had a difficult first half against a good Swiss side – 0-1 at half time and it could have been worse.
2nd half we were much more solid with Chuba nicking the third goal in the fight back to finish 3-1
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Ireland lead Bosnia 1-0 at HT, a lucky penalty which Walters scored
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsene-wenger-qa-arsenal-boss-6841939
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There are currently 12 Premier League players that are out with Torn ACL injuries. That is simply frightening. [ Via @BenDinnery ]
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walters gives Ireland a 2 goal lead
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Ireland’s defense has been in panic mode for last few minutes
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Ireland make it to the Euros
England, Walse, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland all qualified for the Euros, would be great to see them all in the one group
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After a bit of a hand from the referee a v decent performance from Ireland – better than Bosnia tonight and in the first leg
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I’ve been distracted tonight.
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Yikes, no Eddy!!
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New Post up
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