What a weekend this could turn into. Shotta said he experienced the kind of disturbance in his waters which set off a rumbling in his tail bone causing him to wonder if the stars might align in our favour in one giant, glorious three day festival of sporting joy. Could Rafa sprinkle magic onto the King Power turf and inspire a Newcastle miracle? If so would it be the bookend to a weekend which saw City squander two of their three points in hand, England overcome their Welsh bogey, Chelsea get knocked out of the cup and the longest awaited most deserved red card ever being shown to that nasty little Chelsea player with who’s name I shall not sully the clean sheets of our pristine blog.
I am not one to question the strange spirits which so moved the vitals of one of our finest fans but Shotta knows, and so do you and I, that all of these events both past and in a hopeful, longed for future will mean little if we cannot do our bit and overcome The ‘Orns in our lunchtime FA Cup quarter final. The league results could still turn out in a manner helpful to our cause but Chelsea’s exit from our cup would be like ashes in the mouth if we fail to progress to our third successive semi final.
There is a lot of talk about prioritising this competition over that. This kind of cheap chat is of course the prerogative of the fans; people like us who have nothing to lose and who’s ideas and opinions will never be tested. We can spout any old baloney and deride as clichéd and empty the talk of dealing with the next match as it comes and focussing only on that game. Surely though, Arsène Wenger is quite correct to never give up on any of the competitions in which his team has a chance of success no matter how slight that might appear to be.
Imagine the opposite. Imagine a manager throwing everything at the FA Cup and writing off the Champions League because it looks an unlikely bet or the league because his team must rely on the mistakes of others. What kind of manager would that be? Not the kind I want running the side I support. Not the kind ever likely to inspire his players to success.
If our lads think about Barcelona while on the pitch against Watford they will surely come a cropper. We can indulge in such idle luxuries because it isn’t our careers on the line. We can miss a goal because we’re composing a pithy tweet, or trying to favourite a post on Positively Arsenal, but if a player misses one because his mind isn’t fully on the job in hand, he jeopardises his place in the starting line up.
I think it is important to understand the distinction between those of us for whom football is a passionate distraction and those who actually build their careers upon it. There seems to be a trend among some supporters to imagine their club owes them something. Their argument runs along the following lines. I’ve paid so much money following this team that I have earned the right to demand this or that from the club. Phooey. Yes you heard me, phooey I say. What utter garbage.
If I went to see every gig during the Burning Hell’s upcoming tour of Britain and Continental Europe it would bankrupt me. Would that give me the right to demand their next album contain songs written in a style of my choosing? No. Of course not. The price of admission would buy me the right to watch the band. It wouldn’t buy me the right to watch them play well nor to watch them play the songs I like best. They could play two hours of Lighthouse Family covers, and as long as they hadn’t promised otherwise I would have no grounds to complain, would I?
It is no different with football. If you buy a ticket to the match and lose half a days pay and spend thirty quid on petrol getting to the game, all that ticket entitles you to is to see a football match. Not to see a good one, not to see a side composed in line with your personal fancy and certainly not to see a victory. You pay to rent a seat for a couple of hours inside a stadium where a match will take place and that is all you can actually expect for your hard earned.
Do you have the right to moan and grumble if the team was shit and the match dull? Certainly you do. You can also moan that your mum never cut the crust off your sandwiches and that it rained when you went to Bognor for that week back in the long hot summer of seventy six. You can complain about anything you want to but if you choose to do it repeatedly and noisily and publicly and to the detriment of the atmosphere in the ground you will almost certainly make it harder for the team you support to win.
If you really, really don’t like the style of play and are really and truly dissatisfied with the results achieved by the team, I’m going to let you into a secret. You don’t actually have to go to the game at all. If the Burning Hell start sounding like the Lighthouse Family I’ll stop listening to them eventually. Not straight away. I really love the band and would of course give them a chance to mend their ways but I don’t think I’d bother spoiling the gig for the musicians and those who were enjoying it just because it wasn’t my cup of tea. After all that would make me a special kind of arse wouldn’t it?
Today’s opponents have lost three of their last six and only scored one goal in those six matches. They’ve also only conceded five and so while they appear to carry little threat in attack their are not exactly porous at the back. If we come at them in the same way we did against Hull we should be fine. Should be. I don’t take any side visiting the Emirates lightly so don’t read that as over confidence. I simply believe that when we cut loose and play with freedom and élan, we are good enough to beat anybody.
Some thought we started badly in the replay on Tuesday and while it is true we played with more verve, more dash and danger once we’d scored, I thought we were simply cautious, feeling our way into the game and not taking chances. Once we had the opposition on the back foot we went in for the kill. It was a similar story against Spurs in our last league game and had the pressure born fruit before half time when they were on the ropes I’m sure we’d have seen a different outcome.
Today is a chance for the manager and the players to get us to Wembley yet again, if only for a semi final. A chance for someone to be add their name to a long list of Arsenal FA Cup stars and a chance for the supporters to get more for their money than just a seat in the stands. Fortunately the overwhelming majority understand that and I’m sure will give their all to help carry the team. If you have the great good fortune to be at the match I hope you are in good voice. After all, as Shotta said, this could end up being a very good weekend indeed.
Positively Arsenal 
Morning Stew, many thanks for another huge helping of your sense and sensibility.
They know how to be bloody stubborn but heres to sending the Orns back to dear old Herfordshire all tattered and torn.
COYG!
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Morning Millsey. Can’t stop got to mend a puncture.
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OK, till later!
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No doubt we’ll have a High old time if we do make it to Wembley again but in the meantime Stew’s blogs always leave me feeling Lifted.
Lighthouse Family, isn’t it? Marvellous.
Think I agree with you when you put the slow starts down to feeling our way into the game and wonder if that is, partly at least, the Bould effect, attempting to make it harder for teams to get that increasingly vital first goal.
Lovely day today and it’s good news the skies are sooo blue, I think the sun’s going to shine on everything we do.
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Hear hear. On the money Stew.
A win today and Arsenal will extend their unbeaten run – which started when we defeated Spurs with a flawless display full of “freedom and élan” at the Emirates – to 17 FA Cup games.
So far:
P 16, W 15, D 1, L 0, GF 40, GA 11
A love affair I enjoy very much. COYG
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“They could play two hours of Lighthouse Family covers,”. This line really had me laughing as did the Bognor one.
The toxic atmosphere at the Emirates has made it a place I find difficult to attend – great when we are winning – but awful when we are stuttering. The people around my seat spend as much time talking business and staring at their mobiles as they do watching the game, and woe betide anyone who makes a poor pass. The dog’s abuse Theo got when coming on as sub vs Swansea infuriated me – how was that meant to inspire the lad? No wonder it took an away game to get back on track, which in itself is an awful indictment of the Arsenal home fanbase.
A terrific read, thank you.
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Big Raddy – agree, very much my experience in recent years.
The Emirates must be the first ground in the entire history of football to have been converted by its own fans to bestow Away Advantage to our visiting opponents.
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Ridiculous write-up: there were no rainy Bognor weeks in the summer of 76. The weather only broke in September after the season was over.
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#Somesuperlativeihaventusedyet, Stew. Cheers.
Like big raddy before me I smiled at the Bognor line although it was actually a caravan in Great Yarmouth for the young me and my family in ’76
Am looking forward to today and the short train journey down will almost definitely be shared with a few Watford fans. So banter switch is on and off I set (after a cup of tea and a fried egg sarnie) to sit in my seat and watch the 15-0 win I demand while moaning whenever we concede a throw-in.
UTA.
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I’ve only been to the Emirates a dozen times or so, disposable time (and income) not so flush at the moment, and have experienced one “rocking” moment and one toxic time. The rest have been characterised by the sort of predictable grumbles that have always been the natural calling card of football crowds – but grumbles which give way quickly to sunshine and smiles.
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I have to admit, rolling my sleeves up every morning is becoming tiresome.
I just want to follow the team and support the club. Surely that’s not asking too much?
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after seeing so much fuss by media, pundits, and Arsenal fans, over the performance of Lukaku for Everton in their win over CFC yesterday, I decided to see why so many Gooners were saying he should be our no.1 target this summer, we should spend whatever it takes(yeah that old one), would be a bargain at £70M, and of course he’d get us 25 goals a season, so I watched the entire rerun of the game on BBC red button,
and my conclusion is, that fans are so so very easily persuaded by commentary hype, Jeez to listen to the commentary of his first goal you would think ti was a cross between Maradona’s second goal v England in Mexico 86, and Henry v Liverpool 2004, when in fact all it had in common with both goals was the dire defending, it really looked to me like Lukaku actually lost control of the ball at least twice on that run, and luckily for him it still fell close enough for him to regain possession, then he actually stumbled, which confused Cahill(not that it take much to confuse him), which left Lukaku in a position that meant he could do nothing but shoot, and the goalie had made the wrong decision to rush out, and the shot rolled in.
The commentary team went totally overboard on the hype, even if the co-commentator used the correct term to describe Lukaku, “bulldozer”, and I was glad he mentioned what Jose said was the reason why he sold the lad in the first place – his lack of link play – as that would be the thing that stood out for me, its still lacking, his control is poor, he chases his first touch more often than Oxlade-Chamberlain, he is this season’s Benteke, and we all know how that is working out for Liverpool. £70M my arse. He got a second goal when he shot straight at the keeper, but Courtouis had more spread on him than a ten bob hooker.
So to compare him to what we have, he seems to be bigger and stronger than either Giroud or Welbeck, and so much more than Theo, he is faster than Giroud, but not Welbeck, and certainly not Theo. His ball control is much worse than Giroud, Welbeck and Theo. His link play is poor, well behind Giroud, and Welbeck.
so to sum up, he is a big unit, made all the more impressive cos like the fabled DM, us fans like a big unit more when they are black. He is fast, he hits a powerful shot, his heading is not as good as one would expect from such a big powerful man, but the let down to his game is his link play, first touch and close control. He is a bulldozer, but for £70M I’d want a Formula 1 car.
Verdict – Pass
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great again Steww, While I agree with the sentiment and the analogy, this is football and as we all know football is different, completely different from anything else we know.
people regard their club as their family and those who wear the shirt are representing their family. obviously if someone is representing your family badly youre going to have a moan. Where these fans are wrong are they let, and aid, other people attack in attacking the family, they are the Judas’s of the fan world. Many will boo or attack players before they have even taken the field and reading players names out before the game is sometimes embaressing. The bile behind the bench cannot help the manager and the players coming on and could eventually lead to some sort of segregation area behind the dugouts. When fans lose two whole lower tier sections to the prawn sandwich brigade maybe they will understand the phrases “time and a place” and “appriciate what you have”
As far as the F.A. cup goes I have loved it since Charlie George “who can hit em” brought the famous cup home in 71 COYG
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http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/10203650/aaron-ramsey-left-shocked-by-fans-banner-urging-arsene-wenger-to-quit
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an interesting side note to the game today is this boycott, if reports are correct the game is still a sell out, despite AST, GoonerFanzine, RedAction, Banner Spanners, and more calling for a boycott. So we wait to see how many attend, we all know all tickets sold does not mean there will be 60K at the game. It would be great if 60K or very close to that do turn up, it would put the noses of a few very self important idiots well out of joint, and not before time.
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AFCPressWatch™ @AFCPressWatch 2h2 hours ago
12 of Aaron Ramsey’s last 15 Premier League goals have been scored away from home. #AFC #Arsenal
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We have the worst cry babies in our fan base.
Expect more after the article out this morning…..the headline says Kroenke didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies….pretty incendiary, but if you read further, sounds like a responsible owner who will not spend for its sake to take on those with unlimited spending ability, but owners who ..in Stans words, could easily get fed up, and walk away leaving the club in trouble. Misleading Headlines….don’t you just love em
Disenchanted fans is nothing new of course…..but these days , perhaps part of a wider anger amongst many, who are ultimately, in some way unhappy with their lot and lashing out….and now, they have a platform, a meeting place for the like minded….or those who would happily brainwash some pretty weak people who already have a victim mentality. I have once watched Arsenal Fan TV, if I were a friend or loved one of some of those guys, I would either be extremely worried for them, or rapidly distance myself
But all that aside, good luck to the boys…..let’s hope our scoring run continues!
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well Mandy the problem is that many only read the headline and form their opinion on it alone, then there are many more who read the headline, and then look for bit part quotes to strengthen the view formed from the headline. They want to have their dislike for Kroenke/Arsenal/Gazidis/Wenger/Ramsey/Theo etc etc backed up, and it don’t take things like actual facts for them.
I notice that several of the articles about Kroenke’s comments are actually based around the reaction of fans to part quotes and out of context quotes on Twitter, the standard of jounos is getting worse by the day. But its all part of a bigger game that is being played, if people are distracted by things that effect the team the love, it makes it so much easier for Government to get away with things like their diabolical cuts to the disabled,
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Sam @samuelJayC 4h4 hours ago
Wenger on football fans: “Even in Paradise, Adam was not happy. I have not created human beings, that was God. He didn’t make us perfect.”
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after research and experimentation (different seats) I came to the conclusion that if we could swap the crew that sit on the east side with the not so great and good behind the dugout then the home atmosphere would be much better!
There were a lot of Groaners at the Hull home game. Lots of people in the crowd that thought a pass that was not a percentage hoof up the field and into the mixer was ‘boring’, I guess that they haven’t been watching the rest of the league and other teams in recent years, decades even…the groans and the AAA memes against what we see on the pitch are years behind where the game is, what other clubs and teams are doing right before us, what AFC have already done. The Everton faithful have been railing against Martinez’s filfy foreign ‘continental’ styles but, well, he spent big money on Lukaku and not Fellaini that’s all that needs to be said.
It’s a derby game today. The Sun is out. My two or four favourite midfielders are out from injury but exciting others have got the chance.
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Just a quick pop in this morning before getting ready for church. I’ll be missing the game this morning. On this side of the pond we changed our clocks back last night, so I’m struggling with that lost hour’s sleep. On the plus side, I’ll be able to talk to you guys longer tonight, since we’re only 5 hours apart right now.
Thanks, Stew, for another great blog. I’m just hoping the atmosphere in the stadium improves before Mike and I are over there in April. Hoping to go to the Crystal Palace match, and if some of these “supporters” get started with their typical abuse of players while I’m on my first visit to our great stadium, I might start an international incident.
Eddy, thanks for sharing that article with Aaron’s comments re: the banner. I can’t believe an Arsenal fan would take that banner into the stadium, he says. Neither can we, Aaron. Neither can we. I’d like to think that if he were a fan instead of a player, Aaron would be right at home here at PA.
Come on boys! Wembley awaits the victor.
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well finsbury, I seen many Arsenal fans claim that we were awful/dogshit v Hull on Tuesday in the replay, that the game was as boring as anything they ever seen from Arsenal. I really don’t know what they want or expect, maybe 10 – 0 win
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Arsenal: Ospina, Chambers, Mertesacker, Gabriel Gibbs, Coquelin, Elneny, Ozil, Campbell, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Macey, Bellerin, Monreal, Flamini, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck
Looks like Iwobi will get the start in Barca! Nacho rested again. And Bellerin perhaps also rested and given the opportunity to play on the trip back home too (alongside the two W’s).
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Well the people I know who went to hull had a grand evening out and about.
Think they enjoyed the footy too.
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watford fc line-up v Arsenal: Gomes (GK); Nyom, Prödl, Cathcart, Ake; Watson, Behrami; Capoue, Deeney (c), Guedioura; Ighalo.
watford fc subs v Arsenal: Pantilimon (GK), Anya, Suarez, Abdi, Jurado, Amrabat, Oulare.
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I’m totally confused now, just watched MOTD Extra 2, and John Hartson said that the backing the Newcastle fans give to the team, and the noise they create really helps inspire players – surely not john, Arsenal fans tell us that pro players should inspire the crowd, not the other way round
then Daniels of AFC Bournemouth is interviewed and he said it was their tactic last week to get on the ball early and try and get the Newcastle supporters to turn on their own team/players and add to their pressure, and that this tactic worked great, and the Newcastle players went into their shell – again I say, surely not, Arsenal fans tell us that if our players can’t handle a little bit of a moan or a whinge at them, then its cos they are not tough enough, or not good enough.
something don’t add up, ex player saying having fans give you noisy support help you perform, and a current players saying having fans on your back, moaning and whinging affects confidence and performance, but our AAA/WOB say this is not the case at all when it comes to supporting Arsenal. Oh the dilemma, who to believe, the whingers or the footballers.
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Nice stuff yet again Steww
Strong Arsenal team….whoa!
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Havard Nordtviet will not be signing a new contract with Borussia Mönchengladbach. and will be joining an English team in the summer according to the German’s club twitter account.
He has been linked with a bosman return to Arsenal, as well as moves to West Ham, Spurs and Liverpool
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Thanks for all those wonderful quotes Steww. I feel I have achieved Mel status. For that alone yours is the greatest blog ever (sic). You should have been warned, however, that the last “good feeling” I had was prior to Swansea and we all know how that turned out. On the boring data driven side of things, we have been performing way below our recent averages. In the statistical world this is an outlier and sooner or later we should revert to the mean. Wenger has a history of making the adjustments to get us back on track. 20 years is not just a sample, it is an entire database. As I often quote, data is silent and unemotional but it never lies.
Not to detract from my appeal to data, I couldn’t agree with you more on several points; the prioritization of every competition, the accountability of managers and players vs the the total lack of consequences for bloggers-podcasters-tweeps, the rights of a fan etc.
I would like to take Seebs up on the fan as family which is a very emotive point but I will be foolishly bold and enter the fray. From my reading of history, clubs in England were mostly their part of the capitalist fabric. There were owners and employees and fans paid the tariff. The fact that owners cultivated fans as part of a family to build their brand. It seems many fans got have been seduced by the paternalism of the traditional English ownership but I would hope that when the PL was created as part of the Thatcherite revolution fans would have lost these illusions. The power of the brand was the goodwill that was being exploited by owners who cashed-in by selling up. Kroenke is trying to tell us a few home truths but we refuse to listen.
In that spirit, the only football family I know is Positively Arsenal.
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the BT commentator has already made it clear what his agenda will be today, the Watford fairy tale story, AFC going for 3 in a row, something not done by any club in 130 years is a no no. Watford is the story.
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COYG!!!
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started on top, one chance so far, Alexis missed the ball.
crowd behind the team, and the stadium looks full, boycott you say.
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Giroud goal ruled out for offside, not sure he was offside, if he was it was by inches, there was another AFC player ahead of him but wide in the area.
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Per has started very well, couple of pieces of great defending, Campbell a bit off his game so far.
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Gabriel needs to be told that sort of challenge is only not a foul when its done to Ozil.
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there we fucking go again, putting the ball out of play cos an opponent lies down. Time our lot were told its up to the ref to stop the play, not our players. Get fucking on with the game.
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by the way Watford kicked the ball out for a goalkick when giving it back to us, we put the ball out at the half way line. Grow a pair Arsenal and play on till ref says otherwise.
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Come on Arsenal, get the ball into the net!!!
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Gabriel a lucky boy to get away with that.
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a real rush of blood from Elneny, and his skies his shot out of the stadium, he had Giroud free in the middle
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Joel still not at his best
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Alexis still giving away the ball a lot.
Watford have had two good breakaways that they fecked up with poor final passes.
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oh what a shock, penalty not given to Arsenal when Ozil is brought down in the box. Nothing to see here.
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Gabriel is a bit of a dirty bastard
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ööööööööözil what a player.
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HT: 0-0
Arsenal on top for the most part but not a shot on target.
Gabriel could easily have been sent off.
Watford have messed up two great breakaways.
Campbell and Alexis not at all sharp, keep wasting good possession and good positions.
If we score first we could score lots.
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So far, the glass is half-full for me:
Giroud goal should have stood. Knee offside ffs
Ozil should have had a penalty.
Elnenny had two glorious chances.
Gabriel was very lucky. That two-footed challenge was reckless. Not even a foul.
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downright awful defending and Watford are 1 up, far too easy, a long throw, headed on and igalho gets turned and fires home. awful
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PSG have won the French league with 8 games to spare, they are currently 8-0 up away from home with 5 minutes left.
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