I stepped from solid ground and plunged into the vortex that is Youtube. As I swirled and plummeted farther and farther from reality my original intention of a harmless browse through a couple of football related videos became a distant and unreachable shore. Each link I clicked, each clip selected automatically for me by one of those dreaded algorithms about which we hear so much these days, sent me spiralling, Alice like, down one rabbit warren after another.
I eventually found myself watching a pleasant and largely unremarkable video of a wind turbine shot with the aid of one of those remote drone mounted cameras. The only thing of real interest was the middle aged chap seen taking his ease at the top of the two hundred foot high tower.
It transpired this was none other than Brother Joseph Byron who carries out routine maintenance on the turbine which provides power for the Rhode Island abbey and school of which he is a member. He also enjoys just sitting up there, catching a few rays while taking in the views, and marvelling at the work of his governor. It’s become a bit of a habit, he probably quips. None of this is anything more than background to the thrust of my argument, but I do believe you prefer a little context rather have me plunge headlong into some Arsenal related theory without any sort of helpful preamble.
It wasn’t the video or the Benedictine Brother’s vertiginous meditational perch which had me rubbing the chin and set the brow to furrowing. The frown which slowly creased my otherwise perfect complexion deepened as a result of reading the comments accompanying the short film.
Bear in mind the name, place of residence, job and length and preferred shade of brown of the brother’s tunic and scapular were all a matter of public record and referred to with helpful links by many commentators. This did nothing to prevent a horde of what I took to be mentally unsubstantial individuals falling over each other to be the first to shout FAKE! They protested in lengthy detail that any fool could deduce that the whole thing had been badly cobbled together using cgi. They listed with precise timings all the tell tale signs and howled that the entire thing was nothing more than a set up.
It wasn’t. It was obviously, rather dully and very plainly and easily verifiably real. Not the kind of thing anyone would bother faking in the first place and it had been pointed out by sober, unimpaired commentators that the man was genuine, the incident authentic and here, in fact, was the proof. Still they came. Fake! False! Set up! Surely no one can fall for this obvious trickery, here’s why, listen to me, I know what I’m talking about – and on and on.
I asked my son who being a ‘young person’ is therefore more at ease in this world than I. He shrugged, informing me that these people don’t care whether what they’re saying with such authority is rubbish and can be easily disproved. They are all over the internet, he said, and do not discriminate upon which topic they choose to vent. They either just want you to argue with them and get angry or they are simply shouting ‘Hey everybody, listen to me, don’t I sound clever?’.
Stop me when any of this begins to sound familiar.
I couldn’t help thinking of all the pointless, fruitless arguments had online by Arsenal fans. How we too make the mistake of assuming these are normal sentient beings who genuinely believe the things they say are honest, valid arguments or bear repeating. The reason we end up clutching our temples and imploring the world to tell us “Are these people for real?” is because no, not in any understandable sense, no they are not.
The wall of inhibition which prevents us standing up in a public space and spouting gibberish just to gain the attention of those therein gathered is stripped away on the internet and like a crack fuelled rhinoceros on a foreign holiday who has just sat on an exposed mains cable they run amok wanting nothing more than to be noticed or argued with.
When you realise this contagion is everywhere and unstoppable, not limited to football and certainly not to Arsenal, you realise that, far from fighting the good fight, taking up arms against these pitiable creatures is not only encouraging them it is fuelling their egos and filling them with satisfaction. My advice would be not to engage with them any more. You won’t convince with reason nor convert with persistence, they are not listening and do not care. You’re better off coming to Positively Arsenal, having a cup of tea and enjoying the company. Think of us, if you will, as the snug bar in a picturesque country pub and social media a kind of open air lunatic asylum.
So never mind that all of yesterday’s results were treated as opportunities to vilify the manager. Think of the tweets and Facebook posts as nothing more than the howls and yabbering of unfortunate souls trapped in the insanity and purgatorial nightmare of deranged, uninhibited and meaningless lunacy. You certainly won’t achieve anything by debating with them or quoting them on my timeline.
Today the real football returns. Today we have The Arsenal, not that mildly diverting sideshow put on by our rivals, and today we have the opportunity to take advantage of Man City’s dropped points. We travel back down to the south coast to see if we can do the double over Bournemouth. Despatched with some aplomb in the final fixture of 2015 the Cherries were fortunate to get away with a two nil defeat. A similar scoreline and performance today will suit us very well.
When we played Bournemouth at the Emirates we were reeling from a terrible result at St Mary’s and needed a solid display to help us bounce back. Many of us hoped the return to winning ways would be the start of a profitable run. Given the inconsistency of our rivals had it turned out that way we would, by now, be leading the field by some distance. Sadly we find ourselves back in a similar position today. An indifferent run of results has seen us slide from the top and suffer the unspeakable ignominy of watching second rate sides like Spurs go above us in the table. If ever we could do with a performance of style and confidence and a result to match, today is the day.
What of our opponents? Since playing us in December they’ve drawn two, lost only once and won four times. Two of those victories have been against lower league opposition in the FA Cup, their most recent league result a 2 -1 away win at the expense of Palace.
There is only one point between the sides in the current form table with Arsenal ninth and Bournemouth tenth, and if such statistics can provide any sort of guide to today’s match then a close game may well be in order. Obviously I hope not. I want to see an imperious Arsenal blaze back into match winning form but I’ve been offering up sacrifices and flagellating myself in a penitential appeasement of the football deities hoping for this mercurial performance for so long now that I’m getting a little tired of wishing for it.
Will it come today? Perhaps. Hope may be springing a little lower than in previous weeks but it still springs nonetheless. Alexis, our talismanic little battery powered bunny has had a couple of games to get himself back into his groove and the rest of the lads will know that now is the time they need to convert a few of the many chances they create.
We have been through, if not dark, then at least a gloomy few weeks, but the dawn may be upon us. As Brother Joseph can no doubt attest, there are many steps on the way to the top and the higher one ascends the harder they become. The view from the summit will surely be reward enough, we just have to have faith that we can climb farther and faster than those about and above us. Today would be a rather good day to begin that climb again.
Positively Arsenal 
Ox from a Ramsey pass cross shot in off the post 2-0 to the Arsenal
LikeLike
Stupid Ramsey, no discipline, should never have been up there to assist like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
stew he was vacating the midfield
LikeLike
good ol Cech.
LikeLike
That’s why Chambo earning the start was exciting.
Ohhh great move and shot and save too! Still a long way to go in this game.
LikeLike
I know Eddy. Can’t believe he wasn’t sold in January.
LikeLiked by 1 person
End to end stuff! Jumpers for goal posts. Isn’t it. Mmm?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Bellerin saves Gabriel there what a save!
LikeLike
In fairness to the ref the foul on Monreal would have been hard to see. Just a little knee in the back of the leg. Effective but hard to spot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just need one more goal to kill this off. Am greedy but you need to be in professional football. We are not playing a pub team.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gabby had enough of all that shit. Hoofed it for the lineout!
LikeLiked by 1 person
HT: AFCB 0-2 AFC
Two great finishes, a controlled performance, Cech has made a couple of fine saves.
LikeLike
Not putting them to the sword as us fans might like. Opting instead to practise our control and what we have we hold type game.
LikeLike
Doing well so far. But the Cherries will be out for some nookie in the second half, certainly need a third.I would love to see Larry smash one in!
COYG!
LikeLiked by 1 person
just looking at the replays of the goals, first was a Giroud knockdown from a Ramsey pass for Ozil to half volley home, and Ramsey with the assist for OX’s first every away goal in the BPL
LikeLike
Eddy,
I love your passion for the game, truly I do. But I respectfully request that you not call our players “pussies” ever again. Ever. No matter how angry you are. I find that highly offensive. And just plain wrong. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 3 people
COYG!!!!
LikeLike
come on you Gunners!
LikeLike
nearly.COYG!!!
LikeLike
giroud should have been booked for that
LikeLike
60 minutes gone, and I really don’t like the end to end nature of this game
LikeLike
hang in there Eddy!
LikeLike
this ref worries me, AFCB just after been allowed to take a freekick at least 20 yards from the offside spot and they get a good breakaway cos of this and although its a wild shot wide, it shows how refs influence games.
LikeLike
66 minutes, Ox off, Coquelin on.
LikeLike
well played the OX, come on the Coq!
LikeLike
Games like this are just further confirmation of the importance of Santi Cazorla. With him I would guarantee total security.
LikeLike
what are AFCB doing taking of the world class Afobe
LikeLike
Don’t get me wrong. I am not in the camp of: If wishes were horses. You can only fight with the army you have, not the army you wish.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Match review will be up by 5
LikeLike
81 minutes, Alexis off, Gibbs on
LikeLike
played Alexis come on Gibbs!
LikeLike
3 minutes stoppage time to be played
LikeLike
walcott on for Giroud with about a minute left
LikeLike
Well done lads! COYG!!
LikeLike
FT: AFCB 0-2 AFC
the bit of extra class told in the end, AFCB had several good efforts that required Cech to be in fine form, but AFC always had that bit more about them, and if a bit sharper could have scored three or four more, lots of good moves broke down with wrong decisions or poor passing.
Maybe now too we will see less of this whinging about Afobe being sold last year.
LikeLike
Well I put my head on the line yesterday predicting that we would the game. As I have tried to explain with the stats Arsenal is a quality team and they will inevitably revert to the mean. 5 games without a goal was never going to hold. Given our defence has been consistent, no way was Bournemouth getting any change.
LikeLike
Thank God for that.
A lot of flaws in the Arsenal team’s performance – but they got the result.
They know that they can do better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We shut it down after 25 minutes. Never looked like not taking all 3 points from that point. Very professional game management,
LikeLike
Squawka Football @Squawka 4m4 minutes ago
Aaron Ramsey game by numbers vs Bournemouth
85% pass acc
4 interceptions
4 tackles won
2 chances created
1 assist
LikeLike
good win, although our counter attacks were lacking. We moved the ball slowly and our decsion making was poor. Aaron wasnt at his best going forward which shows just how good he is that he still managed MOTM. Petre was brilliant as usual but overall we need to continue the improvement.
LikeLiked by 1 person
afcstuff @afcstuff 1h1 hour ago
Mesut Özil has now been directly involved in 20 Premier League goals this season. (4 goals, 16 assists) #afc
LikeLike
Squawka Football @Squawka 7m7 minutes ago
HEAT MAP: Aaron Ramsey was absolutely everywhere for Arsenal today. Box-to-box performance.
LikeLike
We won. But I’m dissatisfied. I wanted a goal fest. We were awful. Well, they say that the makings of a title winning team includes being able to win ‘ugly’. Well that fucking UGLY……
LikeLike
New post is up
LikeLike