Hello Positivistas far and near,
Three games, eight days, three wins, eight goals scored, one conceded and that blemish was off the boot of Olivier in a moment of Gallic over-exuberance. Our French hit man moves to 50 goals. Our Czech keeper to a record 169 PL games with no goals conceded. Goodness knows where Petr will leave that record when he finally hangs up his helmet! We sit top of the League with a small but useful margin of a point and a two goal+ difference, CL draw this morning and this evening more grief either for Jose or a check on the aspirations of the formidably improved Leicester. Tricky innit ?
But enough crowing around the farmyard Andrew, what of yesterday’s match ?
Our trip to Villa Park yesterday was like consuming a bowl of raspberries, a portion left at the back of the fridge that I had overlooked in recent days. The fruit had begun to soften, to just be past their crispest best, but with that change the berries had become a little juicier and sweet. Armed with a simple spoon and just a dash of fresh single cream the dish was quickly empty, delicious and wholesome.
Aaron and Mesut ran offensive operations yesterday and when they switched on the gas they were simply far too fast for the Villans. Campbell looks as though he has been doing the job for ages. Our defensive organisations squeezed what little threat the home side had into a couple of speculative long shots and misdirected headers. Cech had his quietest afternoon of the season, as far as I can recall. And when the chances came they were converted. I have ranted about efficiency this season, and yesterday was efficient. 2-0 is a score line so, so much better than 1-0. Ask Everton, and ask the ever entertaining Tottingham.
Theo was a little unlucky that his late first half goal was disallowed for offside, the decision debatable and probably wrong. 3-0 would probably have been a more accurate recognition of the gulf between the teams but there we are. I have no particular gripes with Mr Kevin Friend. Why he gave the penalty, given that he was behind the action involving Theo and Hutton, I am not sure. The right decision however so even referees are allowed a little luck from time to time.
I can find little comfort for Villa from yesterday’s display. They were abject in the first half and by the 38th minute and our second goal any hopes they may have had of nicking a point a la Norwich had been extinguished. They roused themselves a little more in the second half but not to the extent of exerting real pressure. Even their four corners in a row never looked like generating even a single effort on goal or forcing a save from Cech.
Nothing is impossible in football but the home side had the pallor of the condemned man about them, with relegation a nigh on certainty. The occasional view of their fans provided faces of those who have arrived at A&E with an injured relative and anticipate a long wait until the unfortunate victim can be seen to. Resigned and anticipating the worst. Derby must have feared their 11 point disaster in 2008 might never be bettered but I feel this Villa side could have it in them. I really do Clive.
Some hard work for the players and Remi Garde if they are not to be relegated with the lowest ever points total in the PL.
But Remi, might I suggest one small improvement that will cost neither money nor much disruption to team affairs?
Tell Alan Hutton to shut the f*** up on the pitch and stop wasting his time and energy rowing with the officials about every single decision.
That will do nicely for this morning. For those of you with an eye to later today 11 UK time for the CL draw.
Enjoy your week.
Positively Arsenal 
Lovely jubbly Andrew. We blew a big raspberry at the doubters yesterday. Efficiency and professionalism.
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Old fart’s thoughts:
Nothing like being top of the league. Now if we can only stay there.
To be honest, I had the feeling that we decided that a quiet day out was the cure for over exertion on Wednesday. So we never really got out of second gear with the exception of Rambo who was in very special form.
Having said that, Theo deserves a special mention, partly for being a Wally for much of his time, mainly because he got us the penalty that Olly confidently stuck away and then produced that amazing pass to Oz who unselfishly squared the ball to Rambo for a tap in. That Rambo made the original tackle before passing to Theo and then covered some 40 yards did not go un-noticed. It was a great piece of football. And Theo also had a goal disallowed so close to half time that there wasn’t time to see a replay. It showed however that the goals will be there.
The second half was very much a “what we have, we hold” and if anything we slipped into first gear thus giving a very poor Villa side an opportunity to go forward on far too many occasions. Thoughts of the last time (16 or 17 years) we lost at Villa surfaced…we’d had a 2-0 half time lead then. But this Villa side are a poor imitation of their predecessors and most shots were high wide and handsome.
Now for a nice break and time to recharge the batteries in time for City.
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Theo had two/three great touches yesterday Gf and was decisive in both goals – for long periods of the game he did not feature at all – a very Theo-like performance. Not a criticism but he will forever be a puzzling player for me. The notion of him as first choice central striker appears off the agenda (again) !
I hope he stays on the left for Citeh to give Bacary Sagna a little something to think about.
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Thanks Andy Nic and thanks Stew. A touch of the William Carlos Williams about you this morning Andy.
I thought that yesterday potentially had “all the makings” as an old friend used to say when things started to go wrong: a chance to go top against the bottom side had all the hallmarks of a bookmaker’s bonanza. But I think we were clearly plenty good enough (I say think because the vagaries of the recording system on our TV meant the second half was obliterated until the final 10 minutes) and it does seem to me that that important away win at Olympiakos has finally given this side the proper belief that they can win things.
And in those final few minutes when we were flooding forward again I got the distinct impression that the Ox is very much on the way back.
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Morning Andy, everybody.
Nicely summarised and my feelings on the match were largely two-fold.
One was a genuine sadness for the fans of a once big club who appear to be following the once mighty Leeds out of the division for an extended period.
My other observation was despite the absences, the result yesterday really never seemed in doubt. That we were able to drop down to first gear (or was that neutral, for a bit?) to give the false impression Villa were in some kind of contest may have been down to a desire not to go too hard on Garde’s charges. It would still only have been three points, after all. There were times when, as I think Nial Quin pointed out, the run out lacked the intensity of even a training ground session. For most of them then, a useful post CL warm down.
There was one exception to this and that was the performance of Ramsey, exceptional in every way and how much more coherently dangerous we look with him in the side with all that fancy box-to-box stuff and the refusal to give up or let go at any stage. His partnership with Ozil looks anything but fancy and ‘lethal’ is the word that more readily springs to mind.
Just also wanted to pay a small tribute to Stew’s marvellous piece yesterday – do go back and check it out if like me you missed it first time around. As a line from Blackadder might have put it, there were more words of wisdom in that one article than a whole Dictionary of Wise Words. It really should go on some kind of national curriculum of essential reading for anybody planning on watching any sport at some point in their lives.
Looking forward to tonight’s game which likely presents some kind of heart-warming glow regardless of the outcome; terrible thing to say but I really won’t mind too much if plucky Leicester end up top of the league although the sensible heads will be rooting for a chavvy victory.
Draw, anyone?
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Thanks A5 must have been an enjoyable review to write! Nice to see Rambo loving playing for AFC at the moment, amazing stats yesterday.
FH and Steww, do you know the work of Robert Grenier?
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Great stuff Andy.
Rambo really is a special player
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Magnifique Andrew. It has become a joy looking forward to the match reviews this month of December. The key to Arsenal sitting pretty on the PL log has been Arsène’s patience.
Is Madrid a stop over on route to Milan? The next hour will be telling.
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It is always enjoyable writing the blog Mills, some days are a little trickier than others.
After the week we’ve had there was a risk that yesterday’s game had hiccup potential but we wee far too good for them, not spectacular, just much too good.
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Did anyone else hear Souness rip into Grealish at half time ? Talk about abuse !
“WHAT GRAEME SOUNESS HAD TO SAY ABOUT JACK GREALISH
Ed Chamberlin: ‘Remi Garde has a big problem here, does he turn to Jack Grealish?’
Graeme Souness: ‘Jack who?’
Chamberlin: ‘Grealish’
Souness: ‘Sorry, forgive me but what has he done in the game that’s going to be the saviour for Villa?’
Chamberlin: ‘He’s got talent, they say!’
Souness: ‘There have been thousands of young men before who have had ability and done nothing with it. He’s a young man who has it all to do. Who in the dressing room is going to sit Jack Grealish down and tell him where he’s gone wrong? Is it going to be the manager or is it going to be a strong personality?’
(Camera then pans to Grealish)
Chamberlin: ‘There he is, Graeme, right there.’
Souness: ‘Villa need a lot more than him!’ “
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Blimey
good post Andy.
I’m up too, and ready and waiting beside the Old Wireless from news from UEFA.
I’m sure any delays mights be cased by them looking for someone not on an international arrest warrant to pull out the balls.
Let’s hope Arsenal do better than Rep of ireland did.
And If it’s Madrid – either of them, then fine. Bring it on.
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Great read Anicoll as I sup a cup of tea at work!
If anyone only watched MOTD2 they would have left with the impression that it was all Villa…..
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A5- Im impressed by the effort you PG and Steww put in,long may it last. Having supported Arsenal for so long, I go into every game expecting a hiccup, (more of a hang over from the pre Wenger years-theres nothing like conditioning!)but I think Steww’s boxing analogy summed it up yesterday and as youve written it was never really too sweaty betty.Still, it cant be too exciting to get down to a write up after a game like the one at WBA.
I felt a bit sad for the Villeins(!) yesterday, I’d rather see Joke City or WBA go down than their team.
I thought about RVP and Hleb and Song last night, if only their egos hadn’t gripped them so and if they believed in Wengers vision they would have got much more out of their careers…(imo) yet the lads at the moment seem to love playing for the club and not too bothered about it being a stepping stone to, erm Barcelona.
Thanks again to everyone at PA for all their posts and commentary.
COYG!
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On the road again today guys but I had to pop in to share in A5’s positivity. Those raspberries sure look yummy. I don’t think I am being too greedy to wish for another humiliation of the media appointed Special One. What is so special about spending over £500 million to play a cowardly brand of counter attacking football. The English media did a number on Ranieri when he laid the foundations for Bore-hino’s initial success. Leicester has some brave, exciting attackers who, if they keep the back door closed, can easily heap more misery on Chelsea. That would make a perfect week of football for me.
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So little Catalan cousins – it is you again
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I admit I would have preferred Madrid as I am bored with Barcelona, and with Messi fit again they are rather good.
Nevertheless if we are to triumph then it will be over the beaten and bloodied corpses of the Barcelona’s and Bayerns of the game.
Bring me the fixture list.
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Georgaki-pyrovolitis
December 14, 2015 at 10:28 am
Great read Anicoll as I sup a cup of tea at work!
If anyone only watched MOTD2 they would have left with the impression that it was all Villa…..
yeah G-p they did not even show Theo’s wrongly disallowed goal.
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Mills: I don’t know Robert Grenier yet. Thanks for the steer. I shall have a word with the library.
Our manager is unfathomable, so I wouldn’t give up on TW14 playing centrally again. But I wouldn’t have expected to see him on the left wing, although he has often scored some choice goals from that side, as he nearly did yesterday – although in fairness I think he knew he had been called offside before he struck the shot. With regard to the penalty, might there not have been a case for the defender to have been red-carded? Theo showed a lot of strength and determination to get into the position where he had to be hauled down, so well done him for that – and for that epic transitional pass to Ozil too. However peripheral he sometimes seems to be, you can’t take an eye off him for a moment, and I am glad he plays for us, although I do recognise he isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.
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get by Barcelona and we could win the damn thing, there will be a few lesser viewed sides left in the last 8
Gent v Wolfsburg
Roma v Real Madrid
Paris St-Germain v Chelsea
Arsenal v Barcelona
Juventus v Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven v Atletico Madrid
Benfica v Zenit St Petersburg
Dynamo Kiev v Manchester City
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anyone know how many players Barcelona have already signed, will join them in January.
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Fully expecting one of our key players to be sent off in the first leg…
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thursday night cup draw
Fiorentina vs TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
FC Midtjylland vs MANCHESTER UNITED
Augsburg vs LIVERPOOL
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Alexis will be bouncing like tigger at the moment
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Someone has to beat the fuckers.
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Excellent portrayal of a very positive game. I too believe villa played well and if they get a onion bag man in the window they have everything in their locker to survive.
Barca again, the wobs will be saying it wasn’t worth us getting through the group, no one will give us a chance which means we stand a chance.
The one guarantee is there will be two class games
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I love the Barça tie. After not knowing what really expect re Monaco in the 1st leg, Arsenal know they’ll hv to put in a shift to advance, like they did with Bayern at home to last 16 hopes alive.
Had a look at CL fixtures in and around Barça games:
20 Feb: FA Cup tie. Ofcoz.
23 Feb: Barça (h)
27 Feb: Manutd (a)
12 March: West Brom (h)
16 March: Barça (a)
19 March: Everton (a)
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Mills – thank you. Odd, interesting and individual.
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That’s an uplifting review,thanks A5.
Our Friend didn’t want to give the penalty. Simples.
Theo’s pass to Özil followed by Ramsey’s goal reminded me of the CL goal against Liverpool. Lovely. (Theo giving something back, like).
Chris Ramsey was generous in his praise for Ars on MOTD2, but he went along with Shear-bloody-not-mindful, with the view there was nowt wrong with Gardner’s “tackle”.
Barca farca. The fixtures scheduled around those ties are no accident. Same old same old every year.
COYG
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What a privilege to have that Barcelona side come to play on our home turf. To go to the Emirates and see Messi et al in the flesh is an amazing opportunity, and just why it was so worth our boys winning that crucial last group match. And given that we beat Bayern earlier this year (who I would back to beat Barca at the moment) there is no reason why we shouldn’t hold our heads high and go with a real sense of purpose. I am excited.
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Match days & the day after are always a joy on here-thanks Stew & Andrew.
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Arsenal FC @Arsenal 4h4 hours ago
.@Arsenal Under-19s have drawn Anderlecht in the Uefa Youth League play-off: http://arsn.al/HMdTs8
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Arsenal Under-21 starting XI v west ham: Macey, Sheaf, Robinson, Kamara, Bielik, Pleguezuelo, Reine-Adelaide, Iwobi, Malen, Crowley, Willock
substitutes: Huddart, Hinds, Bennacer, Mavididi, M.Bola
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the last time Arsenal faced Barcelona at the Emirates, won 2-1 with this team and subs
Szczesny,
Eboue, Djourou Koscielny, Clichy
Song(Arshavin), Fabregas,
Walcott(Bendtner), Wilshere, Nasri
Van Persie
Unused Subs, Almunia, Gibbs, Squillaci, Rosicky, Denilson
yet with the likes of Cech, Ozil, Ramsey, Alexis and Giroud now in the team we have no chance of winning this time around, well that is if you listen to the whiteflagists
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Ideal game for Jack to target – provided he finds his form with a few games in January.
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Messi’s hammies could be raising the white flag at the prospect of facing a fit and firing Koscielny (don’t think Kozza played in the return after the 2-1 which was an inspired as in inspiring performance from The Boss).
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Arsenal FC @Arsenal 2m2 minutes ago
HALF-TIME: West Ham Under-21s 1-0 @Arsenal Under-21s #AFCU21
west ham started brightly and had two goals disallowed for offside, before AFC got well into the game, but then WHU took the lead. Been several good chances for both sides.
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Sure the second Villa CB lost his bearings and left one to cover two or three on the second goal but I really enjoyed the vague dummy/slight readjustment from Ozil as he latched onto Walcott’s pass.
Simple but effective.
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When we’re fifth or sixth in December I don’t put any stock in the table so it doesn’t affect me. Likewise if we’re top. So of course I want Chelsea to lose tonight.
Don’t I?
But damn if everyone going on about how we’re top of the league doesn’t start to creep in around the edge of my psyche.
I suppose they could draw. That’d still be dropped points. And Costa could get sent off.
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Been back to hospital today and had all drains and tubes remove. Seems I’m well on the mend.
I think recent results were the pick me up I needed.
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Hey fins – I watched that goal again earlier and had the same thought. Mesut’s first instinct was to dummy the CB and you know what? It put the bloke off balance, he tried to step back then tried to step forward when he realised what had happened but by then it was too late. The space for Mesut to work in had been created and the players behind the CB were in acres of it.
The speed of the man’s thought is incredible.
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Brilliant news George. I don’t think it was a coincidence you coming home and our results picking up. You’re a talisman.
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Hazard goes off with a niggle after being nibbled by Vardy.
Leicester take the lead. Mahrez to Vardy. Capitalising upon the malcontent odour off the Chelsea players.
I’d love to hear what the vociferous critics of aw and vocal supporters of JM who say the follow the Arsenal woul have to say. On second thoughts, perhaps not! IBSF.
I’m not conplaining even though a win would send Leicester back top!
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about 10 minutes left in the U21 game and AFC have drawn level, willock with the goal, WHU have had 3 goals ruled out for offside tonight.
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“The speed of the man’s thought is incredible”
Yup. I think that goal is a good reference for us mere mortals of the level that he is at. And of his and Rambo’s speed (OG or Big Bird as he is known when sprinting can crank it up when he gets going to but that greater mass needs a little bit more time to accelerate over the shorter distances. Heh)X
They’ve come a long way from the very beginning of the rebuild when Walcott was the only speedster. Now we’ve got Walcott pinging the ball from his own half through to multiple runners. Haha!
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Will Roman opt for the Foxes manager as his replacement for the happy one? Hehe
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Arsenal FC @Arsenal 26s26 seconds ago
FULL TIME: West Ham Under-21s 1-1 @Arsenal Under-21s #AFCU21
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so when will the media start to target mourinho and cfc
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I think the U21s are looking a little unbalenced since Sheaf has had to play at right back. Until Taf is back Robinson might be a better fit, he is fast, has good control and as Hector showed converting a right winger to a right back has its advantages. Ben Sheaf is able to dictate games from the middle and let the likes of Crowley and Adelaide more attacking roaming roles.
Chris Willock never fails to impress and it sounds like he done well again today another manure loss
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Robinson is a left winger, he is left footed, so not really an ideal option for right back and in fact he has, like tonight played left back
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chelsea are back
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