Bonjour mes Positivistas,
A slightly rocky path in our Premier League form safely negotiated yesterday, and three points safely in the basket. My impression was of a thorough performance by us, plenty of sweat and concentration on our part. There was the occasional flash of quality, such as Mesut’s through ball to Joel to tidily finish*, but we did not run through our full repertoire. Could it be perhaps, with a big game not far away on Wednesday, we played just a notch down from top gear in order to preserve a little energy ? Perhaps the final half an hour in Piraeus will provide the answer to that !
Who done well ?
Mesut ran the show and while watching from Row 2 by the edge of the corner box I could see nothing of the ‘big picture’ of the match it did give me the chance to see how skilful the player is, how difficult to dispossess, even along the very narrow edge of the pitch. Time and again the German would wriggle through and away from the opposition, retain the ball and place the pass. I thought Nacho had a good game and in the past few games has much more of an attacking threat, with no obvious decline in his defensive concentration. Flamini I thought did well in the middle alongside Aaron, and allowed the Welshman free rein in the final third. Aaron slightly unlucky to get only one goal yesterday. Another day it could have been three.
And no match review would be complete without a word for the Arsenal fans “go-to scapegoat” (I stole that in case you wondered) Olivier Giroud. Against three centre backs Olivier was in for a hard afternoon. He’s up, he’s down, but he never hides.
On other against a Sunlun side that had come with a BIG GREEN bus plan, and to be fair to whose plan worked pretty well. They came for a point, the extent of Fat Sam’s horizon. Fair enough they are never going to out-football us at the Ems or at the SoL. Five at the back, four across midfield backed up by a 7’ goal keepers was always going to pose us problems but we negotiated the obstacles well. What the hour long TV replay I watched last night on Sky did not show was the long periods when we retained the ball and pulled the visitors backwards and forwards. I heard some total nonsense about “Sunderland were superb”. No they weren’t. “Superb” in the context of Sunderland’s possible performance yesterday would have been clinging on to the 89th minute at 0-0, and then scoring a breakaway goal. They had a plan, tried to execute it. It did not work.
Now, you know me. You know I am not a man ever given to exaggeration or hyperbole. But in the course of yesterday I was part of, indeed fully experienced, what it must be like to suffer from the psychological condition I often natter on about “dysphoria”. You may recall that is a condition in which the sufferer feels a constant state of dissatisfaction, irritability and disappointment, irrespective of the objective circumstances they may find themselves in. I have also highlighted the probability that professional football, and club teams, provided a focus for people of this type to congregate, physically and through social media. Well yesterday, at the front of Block 4 at the Ems I found myself immersed in what appeared to be a mass rally of committed of dysphorics !
I have sat next to and around some shite Arsenal fans. At one of the scale there are a small minority who appear off their heads with their abuse of our players and manager. They suffer from acute and possible incurable dysphoria. At the other end there are the “tutters”, the “groaners”, the “off-for-an-early-half-time-drink-with-30-minutes-gone” brigade. These are milder cases, treatable in most cases but dangerous if allowed to cross contaminate and develop new strains of pessimism and collective misery.
Well the front few rows of Block Four is, without any doubt on my part, the worse epidemic of the condition I have come across. Not one good word to say all afternoon, not one positive syllable.
So Block Four at the Emirates I award you the Joel Campbell Trophy for your Outstanding Contribution to Football Supporting in 2015. Wear it with Pride.
Enjoy your Sunday !
* the header photo courtesy of the Independent of Joel’s composed finish.
Positively Arsenal 
Welcome back George. I’ve been lurking in the shadows of recuperation myself but I’ve been keeping abreast of posts and comments. Glad to hear you’re on the mend and may your recovery be swift and absolute.
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Welcome back Georgie boy – I hope your recovery goes well.
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Gabriel & Iwobi
https://streamable.com/ybj9
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Yeah:
http://lastwordonsports.com/2015/12/07/if-you-dont-appreciate-olivier-giroud-you-should/
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Not been on here for a while… so late to the news about Georgie boy, glad to hear you’re ok mate… take it easy, make sure the wheels on your wheel chair are well oiled and don’t try to take it down hill too soon. Smiley.
BTW… glad to see people bigging up Ramsey against Sunderland… he was my MOTM.
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Morning NB – I trust all is well down in southern France and you were voting early and often. News today seems to be drifting toward the date of Jack’s return at some point this month and what it may mean. Stay fit Jack and the world is your oyster.
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Just a quick note for George. Had noticed his absence on Twitter, and then saw that he had been in hospital. Hope for a speedy recuperation. Get well soon.
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from jeorge bird
ÖZIL AND RAMSEY MISS TRAINING AHEAD OF ARSENAL’S GAME AGAINST OLYMPIACOS; SEVEN YOUNGSTERS TRAIN
1 Vote
Screen shot 2015-12-08 at 12.00.27
Midfielders Mesut Özil and Aaron Ramsey missed today’s final training session at London Colney ahead of tomorrow night’s crucial final Champions League group stage fixture away to Olympiacos.
It isn’t currently clear whether Özil and Ramsey will be able to feature in Greece, but Arsene Wenger’s side are already without a plethora of players through injury, with Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere, Alexis Sánchez, Tomáš Rosický, Danny Welbeck, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla all sidelined.
Several youngsters trained with the squad today, with Alex Iwobi, Chris Willock, Glen Kamara, Kaylen Hinds, Josh Dasilva, Donyell Malen and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde all in attendance. The latter has just recovered from an injury of his own and may be on the bench tomorrow night, with Iwobi and Willock also in contention to make the squad.
Arsenal must win by a scoreline other than 1-0 or 2-1 in order to progress to the Last 16 stage and avoid dropping into the Europa League.
Possible team:
Čech
Bellerín-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Monreal
Flamini-Oxlade Chamberlain
Walcott-Campbell-Iwobi
Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Reine-Adélaïde, C. Willock.
Injured: Iliev, Johnson, Rosicky, Arteta, Wilshere, Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla, Coquelin, Sanchez, Welbeck.
Other eligible players: Huddart, Macey, Pleguezuelo, Kamara, Moore, Mavididi, Hinds, Robinson.
Meanwhile, Arsenal U19s also take on their Olympiacos counterparts tomorrow, although their place in the next phase of the UEFA Youth League is almost secure.
A win will ensure progress for Andries Jonker’s side, whilst a draw would also be sufficient if Dinamo Zagreb fail to beat Bayern Munich.
Stefan O’Connor is out on loan, whilst, as mentioned above, several players could be with the first-team squad.
Possible team:
Keto
Moore-Pleguezuelo-Bielk-M. Bola
Sheaf-Agyei Tabi
Hinds-Bennacer-Nelson
Malen
Subs: Huddart, Da Graca, Eyoma, Robinson, Fortune, Dasilva, Mavididi.
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Jeorge Bird @jeorgebird 2m2 minutes ago
Ozil and Ramsey both on the plane.
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Steww if youre looking in, my news/song fit for tonight is Route 66 by the Cramps.
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Afternoon all and welcome back George. Santi and Alexis didn’t make it but hopefully we’ll be ok till we get to the other side of the Xmas Crunch though I see the FA cup draw has been gentle again. Tottenham, Hull and now Biggus Sammus again. Lucky balls I guess? Hehe.
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Folks
While you are waiting for some football to happen, can I extoll you all to read this staggering post on our good friends at Untold’s blog.
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/48589
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Right Wolfsburg – let’s be aving you
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‘Staggering’ is right DC
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I see the zoo is missing one of its ginger primates
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Serbian referee
Paranoia klaxon
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That Naldo is s big lad !
1-1
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2nd Wolfsburg goal an absolute peach – Manyoo rocking
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Wow, that was an Arsenal type goal from the car makers. 2-1
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Manyoo being opened up like a tin of baked beans by Draxler
I can’t understand why van Gaal didn’t buy a quality DM in the Summer ?
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This is good – end to end – good football – three goal, two of them corners – Malaysian gambling syndicate obviously pulling strings of Serbian referee
What’s not to like ?
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*corkers
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Enjoyable night of football – last ten minutes in Eindhoven and in Wolsburg total chaos
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Utd need to give Van Gaal another £300M if they expect him to build a good team,
isn’t that how it works
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that was a propper winner for PSV too
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The fine line between success and CL qualification – or the ‘other place’ – a salutary lesson that you have to be good from the first to the last whistle.
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Radio 5’s call-ins are a real peach tonight.
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Europa league last 32 will feature Dortmund, Sevilla, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Schalke, Napoli, Athletic Bilbao, Galatasaray
still possible that Arsenal and Chelsea, Roma, Valencia will be in there too.
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Eddy
That round of 32 looks more scary than the UCL round of 16.
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Oliver Kay @OliverKayTimes 37m37 minutes ago
#MUFC in Champ Lg since 2011 final
11/12: Group stage
12/13: R16
13/14: QF (Moyes!)
14/15: Didn’t qualify
15/16: Group stage
Not good enough
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yeah DC, its laughable that so many Gooners are spouting bull like, lose on purpose tomorrow so as to drop into EL and play the kids for a few rounds, this nonsense idea that clubs from other countries are pub teams compared to English clubs is one of the biggest pieces of shit that these idiots come out with.
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DC I just listened to Radio 5, and the one thing it proves is that all clubs have idiot fans who think the know it all and that it is so simple to fix, buy buy buy, and if that don’t work, buy buy buy some others, oh and change the manager.
Nearly cried laughing at one knob who said “players left utd cos they fell out with LVG because they did not do what he told them to do”, and this was LVG fault.
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so Arsenal’s CL group this year included a team with a drugged up player and another team under investigation for two separate match fixing incidents.
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Daniel Sturridge injured again, hamstring this time.
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Didn’t Klopp tell him to play through the pain barrier?
Imagine media reaction if Wenger said something like that about Alexis or Ozil.
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