Lots of football fans are spending a lot of time discussing the various merits of teams not their own. There is even a rift among Arsenal fans – but fear not for this is a rift of the gentlest and least acidic nature – as to whether Leicester City should stop irritating everyone and bugger off or whether they might continue just long enough to take points from Manchester City. Some are looking nervously over their shoulders towards Paxton Road as the noisy neighbours continue to stack up points in what looks like a irritatingly consistent fashion. Others worry that Manchester United, despite being written off as a disaster movie, are actually still in fifth place and hardly an irrelevance given their historical tendency to spoil things for everyone around them.
Supporters, like gunslingers in a wild west saloon, sit nervously fingering the hammers on their Colt revolvers, casting quick uncertain glances around the room unsure where the real danger lies. Such is the nature of the 2015/16 season. Uncertainty is king, the unexpected the only thing worth betting on. Some adventurous fellow was actually giving out his score predictions for all the top six clubs over the next few games. I read them and stood to applaud such selfless endeavour. Bravo sir. Could I suggest you perhaps get a hobby? Maybe he thinks he already has one.
The fourth estate, that foetid swamp of amoral, parasitic blood suckers doesn’t know which way to turn and is terrified that Arsène may put two fingers up to the lot of them and actually win the title. Instead of simply acknowledging where the club is they are trying to pile on pressure with their ‘the best chance for years’ narrative or as in the case of disaffected ex players like Robson openly stating that Arsenal ought to win the thing so that if anybody else does it can be painted as a huge failing by the manager and players.
I have a subtly different take upon all this hoo-ha and folderol. As soon as we hit the top of the table I actually cease to give two hoots about any of the other teams regardless of their upcoming matches or current form. Only when they appear on the Arsenal fixture list do they even truly exist for me. You see, my fellow followers of football’s finest, the time to worry about what the others do or don’t do is when we are chasing them not the other way about.
When my mother taught me to drive back in the halcyon days of the Triumph TR7 and Ford Fiesta XR2i, she would swat away any comment I made about the vehicle driving in such close proximity to my rear end that it appeared to be attempting to mate with my lumbering Austin Maxi. She would tell me in no uncertain terms not to worry about what was happening behind me “Let them worry about you” was her mantra and it is sound advice whether on the A362 or when contemplating a possible push for the Premier League pole.
We, in contradistinction to all other sides, enjoy the comfort of only needing to concern ourselves with our own result. Win today by any margin and we go top again. It is a splendid state of affairs. If and when it changes I shall alter my stance and ponder the results of the team or teams in front of us. Until then I’m not interested in the rear view mirror. There is only one goal and that is victory against Chelsea.
Any other year and a visit from any other team languishing in fourteenth place might not cause much of a flutter. Add to this the possible return of two of our better players and one might have expected a little more confidence in the run up to such a game. Except of course it isn’t any other team is it? It is the demon spawn of Fulham. The financially doped, universally despised, diving, cheating, thuggish ensemble of brattish, unsavoury ne’er-do-wells who have never made life easy for us. Like Liverpool and Stoke I expect them to raise their game today. The graph showing their league progress this season may have virtually flat-lined over the last dozen games or so but they still posses a talented and capable squad and we will need to be at our most truculent, determined best to prevail.
The table however, does not lie. Arsenal is where it is on merit and likewise our visitors are where they are on merit. Play to our potential and we can beat anybody. Refuse to rise to their illegal tactics or respond to their deliberate provocation and we will return to the top of the table this evening.
A capable referee is vital in this fixture as anyone who witnessed the debacle at Stamford Bridge can attest. I see that a certain Mr Clattenburg holds the whistle, cards and shaving foam today. I won’t presume to be able to distinguish his ability from any of the other hapless and most probably corrupt gang of useless, myopic and inconsistent fools who spoil so many matches every year, but I’m sure Andy Nic has Clatty’s picture on his bedroom wall and will be better placed to tell us what a decent, professional and responsible fellow he is. So I’ll leave that to you Andy.
Personally I used to hate playing Chelsea above all other teams. Their demise as a threat and the departure of the graceless one has somewhat drawn the sting as far as that goes. I still want to beat them of course. Granted, given that a win puts us back on top, I want us to beat everyone we play so that doesn’t mean much. I just feel, Diego Costa aside, that a little of the venom has left this particular fixture and that is all to the good.
Calm professional heads needed from now until May, I fancy. The kind of serene determination best able to shuck off the occasional predictable disappointment and get back to winning ways tout de suite. I firmly believe we have these kind of players. Given even half decent luck with injuries and a bit of backbone from the fans we should be there or thereabouts.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s do that which needs to be done today and allow tomorrow to wait until its appointed hour. At the time of writing our destiny is still in our own hands, get the job done today and we can begin to prepare in a similar vein for the visit of Southampton, with whom we also have a little unfinished business to attend. Oh dear, just listen to me, preaching live for today and at the same time lifting the skirt of the calendar to peep upon the knickers of tomorrow. I apologise. I will leave you to your pre match rituals. I’m off out to brave the weather on my trusty mountain bike and assuming I don’t leave the saddle in an unplanned and deleterious manner I shall return and resume our intercourse down among the wines and spirits. Salut!
Positively Arsenal 
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awful miss by Flamini from a great ball in by Ramsey, it seems like Flamini went for some sort of spectacular finish and got it all wrong.
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We’ve made a few chances which is encouraging but this is like eating a meal you’ve looked forward to for ages but with a constant bad taste in your mouth.
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HT; 0-1
afc not out of this by any means, despite being a man down and not being at our best. Flamini has wasted two good chances, joel has missed one too.
I’d bring Alexis on for the second half, for Campbell. Might even be tempted to bring on Elneny too for Flamini.
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Again Eddy that’s so very harsh on Flamini who did his best to improvise a difficult pass.
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I suspect Arsene is being loud at the moment
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Amazing – Peter Schmeichel agrees there was no contact for the tackle but says THERE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE and that CLATTENBURG GOT IT RIGHT.
If he’s right in that then why play football?
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I swear I am kicking every fucking ball. Being as talentless as I am of course I am under the illusion I would have scored both Flamini goals.
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How can Sky have such a so-called expert spouting such garbage?
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Looking on the replays of the build-up to the sending off, everything we did wrong was borne out of anxiety to get that 1st goal. Per could easily have dropped deeper. We are too anxious to beat these c*nts and therefore prone to making big mistakes. Just need to be professional and control our emotions.
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COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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So , ref, if that wasn’t a penalty just then why didn’t Fabregas get booked for diving?
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We just need to patient as Chelsea leaks goals.
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That scrum in the box was chance #1.
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Just a yellow ?
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COYG. Come on the OX, gives us another goal like in the Charity Shield.
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Ox on for Walcott – 15 minutes + stoppage time to play
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Remember the meme that Ramsey was innately indiscipline and could never play deep.
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why didn’t monreal hit it with his right foot
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also Kos maybe should have went down under that challenge, he was tripped up
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COYG 5 mins enough to win this, said Pollyana
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clattenburg is a cunt, that was a clear foul on Ramsey
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You aint wrong Eddy
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5 minutes of injury time being played, about 2 left
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COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Well that is a disappointment
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bugger.
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Pers gonna get it form the spittle brigade.
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3 points adrift of Leicester, Sanchez back, and for the last 30 minutes an OK performance. For the third game in a row against these bastards at the Ems we still did not have a clear shot on target. We may have to look at that.
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We didn’t play well. Too many players off form today. But once again when we play the blue scum I feel cheated. I hate them and their racist fans and it sickens me to see them prosper through a serial cheater like costa.
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Fuckwits on twitter saying our boys didn’t show passion. 10 men gave it their all to a losing effort. It was too much passion to get on the front foot why Per was out of position that led to him having to clatter Costa for that sending off. Being an attacking team carries risks and you have to be smart and controlled. Once Chelsea had the first goal they were able to sit back and dictate. Has been for the past 12 years and as long as they have good players they can hurt us. as they did today.
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Pass – We were down to 10 men and with a man disadvantage you have to be conservative when attacking. Strange as it may seem we were less open when down to 10 men.
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FT: Arsenal 0-1 chelsea
can’t fault the effort, in fact the guys ran themselves to a standstill, but we did not do enough overall to get anything out of the game,
it was going to be very difficult once we had Per sent off – something that was avoidable, why the high line(Per too slow to play a high line), and when caught why foul when it would mean a sending off, – there was poor defending on their goal too, Monreal, Kos, Gab and Flamini all could have done more to prevent it,
we had four or five decent chances but never managed to get clean contact on any of them, Flamini, Campbell and Ox all had total mishits when in decent positions, the reluctance of our players to take a shot with their weaker foot, when it was on, was annoying.
Good to see Alexis back, he was a bit rusty but still caused them problems. Ramsey was very disciplined in his performance, he played very deep, oddly Flamini was the one who was getting in the attacking positions, Giroud looked really sharp, but he made way when we went down to 10, I thought once again our passing was a little off, of course us trying to force it is probably the reason.
title is still there for us, so no reason for anyone to throw in the towel, find it laughable that some so called Gooners are already hoping that Leicester win the title now, but then again these sort have an agenda, and it aint in support of the club they claim to love.
FA Cup next weekend, Per suspended for that, Alexis gets a chance to sharpen up, Rosicky back, Elneny to play, Coquelin back in training, Welbeck due back in training this week. title is on, double in on, and in fact we can still do a treble.
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I think the Boss point that Costa had Per sent off sounds a bit like sour grapes. But Costa could have skipped out of the challenge instead of dramatically going down and rolling over like a man shot. Remember when that was the way we play in England?
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Poor first 25. Great effort afterwards. Shit happens. Move on and win some games now. Proper Netball international on Sky Sports 3 right now and worth watching England’s new Goal Attack. Somehow appropriate she is playing at the Copperbox.
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didn’t realize that Per made such heavy contact with Costa, he is lucky he was able to continue after it.
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Fuck, Olive was having a smashing game before he was subbed off. The ten guys left on the pitch showed heart through out. Clattenburg handed them the match on a silver platter.
At least we have Sanchez and the Coq back in the team. It says a lot about this squad that we are still in the top three despite missing some of our most important players. I see us passing Leicester and making the top spot our own in the next couple of weeks.
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Any of the top four-five teams that goes on a 8-10 game winning run will have this title fight wrapped up. Come On Arsenal.
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costa did what he had to do in a situation like that. he was through on goal, per didnt get the ball, even though he didnt touch him, he went down so as to get the advantage for his team. i expect that from kos towards the end of the game but he decided to stay on his feet. in this league, small detail gives you the advantage.
kudos to the boys, its not easy to play a big game like this and even more difficult when you play with a man less. the more reason i feel wenger should have chosen a different game to celebrate walcott. i will love it more if we win the title to celebrate walcott’s tenth year at arsenal that for him to score a hattrik on the week he clock ten years at the club.
i dont really buy the argument that wenger kept him on because we were going to play on the break. as the rest of the game proved that was never the intention. we are always going to dominate chelsea.and as such, we need a point man in the middle. chelsea were lucky. we played into their hands once again.
its great seeing alexis back. well played rambo. on to the next game. we’ll still win the league. COYG
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I don’t know what you’re on about, shotta. Per didn’t “clatter” him. Replays clearly show no contact. And Per initially waved his hand at the ref as if to say he didn’t touch him, but when he saw the red card he knew there was no point in arguing. Even Schmeichel on Sky conceded that there was no contact but still came out with that weird reasoning for why it was a red anyway (no contact necessary – the attempt is enough). Boss is quite right to accuse Costa of cheating. He’ll get nothing out of it and, yes, it’ll sound like sour grapes but it’s the truth. I think that may be why Clattenburg didn’t give the penalty for Kos’s challenge on Cesc (I wouldn’t have argued about that one, especially when he gave us a free kick for an identical block by Matic – yellow card too – a few minutes later). Maybe he saw at half-time that he’d cocked up the first one so wanted to adjust for it. I can understand Clattenburg giving the foul and the red but there is no doubt Costa conned him into it. You could see it from his smug smile afterwards. I’ve never hated a player so much in my life. I hope every time he steps on the pitch from now on he gets a multiple fracture, or something that puts him out of the game for good. He is the scum on the scum.
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That said, I thought we were the better team in the second half. Ramsey and Özil gave their all as they always do. Bellerin and the whole back four were superb given that they also had to work extra to provide more pressure up front.
Don’t understand taking Joel off for Alexis – he was clearly more effective than Theo – fuck all that 10 years nostalgia bollocks, we want to win the game and Theo was totally ineffective (again). Now he’s done his ten years, maybe we can get rid off him.
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Agree Shotta, with our players coming back, with our traditional strong finish, we stand as good a chance as any of going on that run. Leicester have some very tough games coming up, Spurs Bielsaball will catch up with them, Utd are useless, still think it will be us or City
Tales of our demise are most premature
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Well, bollocks…..
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No contact Dk?
I have watched that replay of Costa and Per a dozen times and I can clearly see the German’s thigh come into contact with the Spaniard’s left foot – not a lot of contact but nevertheless contact.
The camera behind the goal captures the split second perfectly I think – have a final look yourself
Certainly not sufficient contact to cause the multiple rolling and limb clutching but a foul.
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cant wait to see ramsey pair coq in the middle. flamini has done well all things considered. but coq in the middle would have prevented that through ball to costa. he is a speciallist in interception. as good as flamini might be, his desire to man mark players rather than read the game and marking space will sometimes create situations in the middle. coq and rambo, with alexis and cambell on the wing will destroy any team. especially with ozil playing behind giroud.
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dk
the kos block on fabregas was never a penalty. he has lost possession of the ball before he was obstructed. even by the letter of the law of the game, it should have be given as indirect kick inside the box. it was an obstruction.nothing more.
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The Ref was right to send Per off. What rankles is how infrequently that happens to our benefit.
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i think per would have got the ball but the split second he looked away to see if costa was offside did the trick. if he had bee focused on the ball the whole time he might have had a chance. per is experienced and i love him. if he was on the pitch the whole time, costa woudnt have score. he would have instructed kos to stay on his man. those who call him donkey are also those who say terry is a world class defender. in my opinion, per is even faster than the rasist. terry has been beaten more often by pacy players than anyone i can think of. but because per is not english, he is a donkey.
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It was poor from Per.
Better to go a goal down than a man down.and he might not have scored.
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I agree with George or he agrees with me. Whatever.
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