Good morning Positivistas,
I trust this Monday morning finds you bouncing happily into the new week, seven days of opportunity with Spring emerging all around us. I feel quite chipper myself, as you can probably tell.
I had a good day out yesterday. Good company, good weather, good food, good football, even the railway functioned for once to the specification set out in the schedule, so there was very little to lower my mood.
Of the game itself we dominated, scored once and should have scored more. Very nice goal by the way, clever from Danny and Alexis, a real ‘pick-the-lock’ strike. We did not however trouble the scorer again and a speculative shot from Bolassie in the 79th transformed a decent performance against a solid Palace side into the draw. As we know any Arsenal result, W, L or D, has the nutcases of both wings of the social media civil war reaching for their expletives and last night did not disappoint in that regard. Twitter hummed with indignation, the Scarfists howled with righteous fury. Was it ever thus ?
I thought we played well. I was particularly impressed with my current favourite player Mo Elneny who has slotted in beautifully in the box to box midfielder role. Even in the few weeks he has been in first team action his tackling is more crisper and his positional sense better. There is no evidence I have seen that Mo succumbs to the traditional complaint of players who join from Euro clubs that they struggle with the intensity of the EPL game or to last 90 minutes. Irrespective of which players return to fitness over the next few days I think Arsene will be reluctant to take our Egyptian out of the firing line.
Elsewhere on the pitch I would be hard pushed to pick out any outstanding performer for AFC, or to identify anyone who had a noticeably poor day. Everyone was 6 or 7/10. My impression on a few occasions yesterday was that our possession game worked well to the edge of the Palace box. We passed round the visitors, the players used their speed and guile to get us into the area in which their goal could be put under threat …………………………… But then we sort of “stopped”, took a breath, hesitated, checked our progress, I don’t quite know how to describe it, but in that half second the momentum of the move expired. The next ball was never quite the right one, the pass went astray, a defender got their head in the way etc. We seemed to lack confidence to press with no break in the fluidity of our movement. I would be interested if the ProZone monitoring and stats can pick that kind of subtle change (or whether it is just in my head) ?
I thought Hector looked tired and in need of a rest. He was not running with the ball as he has been, and his crossing radar was awry. I thought Olivier looked frustrated to not get on earlier and he certainly looked busy in the 20 minutes he had. I expect at least those two to change on Thursday. And will Aaron step in for Alex Iwobi against the Baggies ?
And last but not L’East even Roger, not one of the PL’s finest in my view, had a good game. I know, I know, it is an addiction on my part.
Palace celebrated at the end the point that I suspect makes it mathematically impossible for them to drop. In fact they did OK, “disciplined” is the best word. I was impressed with Zaha and his final 20 minute contribution. I would like to see that sort of contribution from Theo and/or Joel. I am not quite sure why Theo is first choice over the Costa Rican at the moment from the bench.
Onwards to West Bromwich Albion and a Thursday game – Thursday! – most odd. Another club with no real requirement to turn in a good performance at the Ems but Pulis is a professional and he will send a side out to compete.
Now get out there and give Monday hell.
* and thank you to Ian/Gf60 for the extraordinary picture today !
Positively Arsenal 
And not just the picture, Ian’s take on yesterday’s game;
“The old fart’s thoughts ….can the attached be incorporated? I don’t know
how to do it. Thanks if possible. Ian
This pic shows how good I am at forecasting our season. I really was
confident of success this year but maybe starting with Santi’s injury, the
wheels fell off and we’re left with a struggle to maintain 4th place.
This game summed up our season in a bleak 90 minutes. What more can one
say?
Yet again we can’t take advantage of our possession; yet again we concede a
goal from outside the area (which I suppose is slightly better than
conceding yet another header); yet again we embarrass ourselves.
A draw at least extended our unbeaten run to 4 games and now our biggest
worry must be whether St. Tott’s Day will come this season. And that really
would be a bitter pill to swallow.”
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Nice one Andy.It wasn’t the dross performance many have painted it
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Lets not bicker among ourselves today?
Up the Arsenal
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An extraordinary picture indeed Andy… quite bizarre, and a very good post.
George, as always up the Arsenal. I don’t bicker….
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Good summary Anicoll,
It was a great day yesterday meeting so many like-minded folk.
I wish I could explain the lack of cutting edge in our team.
Anyway, I need to finish off here at my mum’s in London. She watches The Jeremy Kyle show, everything pales into insignificance compared to how bad TV can be.
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It was a day on the roller-coaster and prone to raw response.
Creswell scored at the King Power and everyone round me was looking at one another, eyebrows raised, probably the same thought in 99% of our AFC minds. Could they ? Could we ?
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NB69
I thought you were a door man at the Tolly yesterday. Are you a very big bastard?
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Ha ha Georgaki
In comparison to the BFG, I’m not a big bastard, compared to Cazorla though, I’m a very big f@cking bastard
I can’t explain what went wrong yesterday either, that really should have been 3 points in the bag…..
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as others have already said, yesterday’s game summer up our season, lots of the ball, 20 efforts on goal, 6 on target, but only 1 goal, and it was not like the keeper was overly worked either, Ozil poked his shot from six yards straight at him, and Welbeck also hit his effort from six yards straight at him, our other 3 efforts on target were akin to back passes. Then at the other end one shot on target, one goal let in.
in the league so far this season we have a 60/39 points won/lost ratio, I wonder when can we stop calling fans dissatisfaction with this a “knee jerk” reaction.
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I am sure we can come up with a satisfactory term Eddy – you start
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Squawka Football @Squawka 4h4 hours ago
Arsenal are the only team yet to score from outside the box in the Premier League so far in 2016.
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It may be we could swipe the appropriate term from fans of another club – Villa for example ? Or Chelsea even
What could it be ?
“Predictable over-reaction” perhaps
Or “Pointless negative reference” maybe
How about “I don’t need someone pointing out what I can see, though if you can actually come up with any credible answers I might be interested in exploring the propositions you suggest in detail”
I like that last one – it has a ring to it
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Perspective is the thing – it is what keeps a man from clambering out on to the ledge each time he has a little setback
Take the goalscoring hysteria
Leicester have 59 PL goals
Totties 60
Citeh 61
While we have an unspeakably tiny accumulation of 56
So three less goals than the champions elect and within two good wins of Citeh or Spuds
Other sides you ask ? Manyoo 40 goals – yes forty
The Appy Ammers 54
Oh and Chelsea ? 49
The notion that we have been cast into a goal free sterile pit of ‘nil’ is a bit far fetched it seems to me.
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Andy
You talk about predictable over-reaction but you’re doing exactly the same…. calm down, let other people voice their view, it may not coincide with yours, but it is just as valid. As George said, up the Arsenal, we all support the club.
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ah – so in answering eddy’s question I am irate and flustered – I must try harder NB to curb my knee jerk reaction !
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Yes Andy , you can’t accuse people of having a ‘knee jerk’ reaction and then go on to have a ‘knee jerk’ reaction to their ‘knee jerk’ reaction….. lovely ain’t it.
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To be strictly accurate I do not talk about predictable ‘over-reaction’ – I refer to reading the same old same old which does not appear to me to have much purpose.
To be told that if Arsenal scored more goals and let in less we would be higher up the league does not really get my lights flashing
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I do like coming on to Positive Arsenal….. normally it’s a haven of tranquillity where I can calm my nerves and frustration about my team, get back to a feeling of zen and acceptance. What’s gone wrong George?
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Chris, we are masters of our own emotions. Some are not very masterful, is all.
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Anicoll,
It is no surprise to me that you have written a sensible and well balanced summary of yesterday’s game, and while highlighting our possession and domination, you do not try to gloss over or arrive at a facile explanation for the ‘stopping’ of intricate moves in the Palace box that should at least have resulted in a testing shot.
That is pretty much how I saw the game too.
Well done sire!
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Seems NB hasn’t been to PA very often. Andy Nic and Eddy are the ying and yang of this blog. 1-1 and twitter, the high priests of blogging, football journos and various armchair experts recite the standard cliches about Arsenal. Yet Chelsea has a shambolic season, haplessly crashing to a 3:0 defeat to City on Saturday and the usual cassandras of doom are eerily quiet. Frankly the “problem” we have at Arsenal is nothing that a 30-goal a season striker can’t solve. Even then, we had Van Stapleton banging them in and that is no guarantee of success. As LCFC is now proving a tight squad which is relatively injury-free, friendly refs and a good dose of luck will carry you a long way.
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I am slightly puzzled by this reference to ‘knee jerk reaction’, which normally means an instantaneous and choleric response to an event, or someone else’s comment.
I guess it comes from the shock feeling one experiences when subjected to a short sharp bong on the patella by a medic.
Hence, as all the complaints, disappointments and occasional euphoria concerning Arsenal have been heavily masticated and regurgitated ad nauseous, it is difficult to see them coming as much of a shock to anyone, or even been expressed unthinkingly.
Well OK, perhaps the use of the word ‘unthinkingly’ was a little tenuous.
Just a passing thought! Now there’s a shock!
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ad nauseous = ad nauseum [my auto-correct knows sod all about Latin, evidently]
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I followed the game on the BBC Sports site and thought that when we scored our late first half goal the following would happen. Palace would come at us fairly strongly and we would sit back, defend well and then score from a break away. When the game instead followed the pattern of the first half but with no more goals coming it seemed to me only a matter of time before they would score with their sole attack of the game. Which of course they did, and in the end the only real surprise to me was that we managed to hang on for the draw. Now, those were only impressions formed and feelings felt from the intermittent text updates from the Beeb, but that’s what it felt like. And although most footballers probably don’t over think things, and hopefully spend little time teetering on the edge of existential despair, it wouldn’t surprise me if more than a few of our team don’t have a “here we go again, the fates are conspiring against us again” when we are unable to put the game out of the oppo’s reach. There was a terrible sense of predictability about it all.
And because of that most of us will feel frustrated and irritated from time to time, and will all have (no doubt) our pet theories about what to do, each of which will have a grain of common sense but possibly little in the way of original thought. For example,I think we fail to score as many goals as the chances we create suggest we ought to score because we don’t always kick or head the ball hard enough. The priority being pretty and precise placement rather than brute force and ignorance. A bit of truth? For sure. The whole answer? Absolutely not. But what I do think is that something has gone wrong with the side since that lovely moment when we went two-up against City.
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a gripe I’d have over the goal CP scored yesterday is, how did we let ourselves get caught on the break, we had the lead, we had no reason to not be set up far more conservatively, why was both our fullbacks up in attack. I also for the life of me don’t know why Gabriel did not tackle Ade out on the touchline. Was there a fear of conceding a freekick and so letting CP put in a cross into the box that they might score a header from.
the team seem to be playing with a major lack of confidence at both ends of the pitch. At the moment we don’t first time cross, we don’t first time shoot, we don’t first time clear a ball, the one touch quick passing is not there, all things that are done when confident.
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I thought we were again average and punching well below our weight, but it`s good to get the view of an impartial viewer with no axe to grind and I was lucky enough to have my arty friend Ivor Straponov watch the game and asked his opinion.
LCM : You have no football intelligence whatsoever, so it would be nice to hear some of your artistic bullshit opinion on that performance !.
IS : My work normally explores the relationship between Bauhausian sensibilities and hungry hippo ethics and with influences as diverse as Kierkegaard and Michael Barrymore`s underpants where new insights are manufactured from both explicit and implicit structures.
I was fascinated by the traditional understanding of the movement. What starts out as yearning soon becomes corroded into a tragedy of defeat, leaving only a sense of unreality and the prospect of a new synthesis.
As momentary replicas become frozen through boundaried and diverse practice, the supporter is left with a hymn to the possibilities of our culture.
LCM : Meaning ?
IS : It should be added that the metaphorical resonance of the purity of line spatially undermines the larger formation as shimmering forms become transformed through studious and personal practice, the team is left with a testament to the inaccuracies of the tactical divergence of the midfield. What starts out as yearning soon becomes manipulated into a hegemony of temptation, leaving only a sense of chaos and the dawn of a new order.
LCM : So we were shit ?
IS : I wish I could put it into such easy low class peasant terms but I am an Arti critic, but in simple terms….yes !
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You are granted one ‘shit’ lcm then follow the programme – you know it makes sense
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Thank you !
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On a largely off topic observation I was surprised yesterday at the make up of the crowd.
I raise a sceptical eyebrow sometimes about the numbers of tourists that make up the crowd as the struggle in with their suitcases, shopping and with, to my view, not too much of a clue where they are or what is going on. Fair enough it is a visit they want to make, the travel company offers the option, and they enjoy the day.
The usual split though is some obvious tourists and some obvious locals. Not yesterday though. Absolutely solid block of tourists, half and half scarves. But for them I would have been all alone in Block 123. Even Palace did not sell out their allocation. Interesting times.
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ha ha ha Coqui…. you were let out of moderation .
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I don’t think the fans are taking this well
https://www.eticketing.co.uk/arsenal/details/event.aspx?itemref=6257
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I mentioned yesterday that for me there are a few ways to freshen things up or shake things up, namely
changes to the management/coaching staff,
changes to the playing staff
a combo of both.
As I believe that having the same staff say the same thing to the same players breeds staleness, and even when something different is being said, the players have already stopped listening, and that you get a familiarity between management and players, a kin to friendship and not boss and employee. and with Wenger so reluctant to change coaching staff – only changes in his time here has come about with the retirement of Bob Wilson and Pat Rice, and in both cases it was promotion from within. So that is why I say they most likely way things will be shaken up this summer will be with an overhaul of the squad.
For me it will be telling in our next 5 games, as to who gets game time, and for those that are fit and still don’t get a look in, I would feel several are in danger of the exit door. Of course some players will likely leave cos they want to or cos they have to, and some cos they are no longer wanted. And it is the last category that I think the next five games will be most revealing about.
We know Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky are out of contract, and there has been no hints that any of the 3 will be given new deals, but of course we can not rule it out. For me the most likely goner is Arteta, he has not been making match day squads even when in regular training, and this coming off over a year of major injury problems. He might if he is lucky, be added to the coaching staff, maybe even in the Academy.
Flamini has had loads of first team involvement this season, but that has really dried up since Elneny got in the team, and if he is not involved in the next 5 games, I think he will certainly be leaving. Rosicky could be a surprise stayer, awful injury record, but when fit, he has been in the squad, although its hard to know this season as he’s only been fit for one game. But he might just be the joker in the pack.
We have several players who are at a crossroads in their Arsenal careers, players who have been first choice at one time or another, but who are no longer, some have even spoke about needing to be first choice. We have Ospina, Szczesny, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Walcott, Giroud, Sanogo and to a lesser extent Jenkinson, Chambers, Campbell and Oxlade-Chamberlain.
What happens Mertesacker in the next 5 games could be telling, if he remains a sub, I feel he will seek to leave and go somewhere he will be first choice, for his last few seasons, maybe back to Germany.
Debuchy is almost certain to leave, that may allow Jenkinson to have another crack at it here, I do wonder where Wenger sees Chambers position, is it right back, CB or DM, if its RB, then Carl may be on way out too.
Lots of rumors that Gibbs will be leaving to try and be a first choice somewhere. AFC said to have tried to sign Chilwell in both of the last two windows as his replacement.
szczesny and ospina have both spoken about needing to be first choice, and with Cech here, that is unlikely so will one or both leave.
Walcott and Giroud are in the same boat, they have seen themselves go from being first choice regular starters, to bit part subs. Do they need to leave, do they want to leave.
Sanogo looks like he might be off, maybe another loan deal, if he aint sold. Him and akpom might get a chance this summer to be the striker promoted to the first team squad.
campbell has gone from fifth or sixth choice wide man to a short spell as first choice, back to being a squad player, again if he don’t get much playing time in next 5 games, he could very well be a goner.
rumors abound that Ox wants out, he wants to be first choice somewhere and feels he won’t get that here. In truth, he has not done enough to earn it. Its hard to know where he stands in the pecking order seeing as he has had injury problems this season.
now that little summation included 15 players that I feel might be for the chop. Of course I do not think all 15 will be let go, but it would not surprise me if more than half of them are. But I do not think if that does happen, it will mean Arsenal going out and buying 7, 8 or 9 players to replace those that leave, even if all 15 were to go, i could not see us signing 8 or 9 players. No, I expect some of our loan players to take their place, and maybe some of the youths to be promoted. I’d say a likely scenario will be 8 players leave, 4 new ones bought(2 or 3 first choice, 1 or 2 squad), and 4 loan recalls or promotions.
Of the 8 I think might leave, the most likely for me are Arteta, Rosicky, Flamini, Debuchy, Szczesny, Ospina, Gibbs, and one of Walcott, Campbell or Ox.
of the loan recalls and promotions I’d say the most likely are Akpom, Zelalem, Willock, and either Bielik or Hayden.
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anicol what would you say was the attendance yesterday, tickets sold was over 59,000
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Top top quality Andrew. Thank you.
“if you can actually come up with any credible answers I might be interested in exploring the propositions you suggest in detail”
Hang on I thought those of us interested in chatting about the Football and not trying to push forward our agenda against the manager using a disingenuous and self-humiliatingly dishonest methodogly had previously put forward our theories in the early winter: take out the tempo and match controlling figures of Arteta, with the BFG on the wane and The Saint clogged off the park then this squad would struggle for a bit with their nous, their setting of tempo etc. When compared with the previous two seasons (that would be context for fans of ‘numbers’)
Part of that is a result of just having to allow Gabriel the time required to establish himself, not ideal but it was always going to lead to some extra errors, like yesterday when he should’ve attempted a tackle (or ‘safe’ foul). Alongside that the conduct of Debuchy nevermind his absence and lack of rest for HB, the performers DB gave when given the chance (whilst trying to give an allowance for his first one or two games) would’ve unsettled and reduced confidence within the camp. This was all discussed here at the time shame.
Truth his Shotta studied the numbers at Xmas and AFC were unlikely contenders at that stage relative to others. But that too has been ignored. By some.
We were pleasantly surprised to see AFC top at the new year here but we didn’t expect or demand a title at that stage given the status of the squad this is all on the record. So I can’t imagine why anyone would “bicker” but I would expect the dishonest to try and carry on from where they left off (ignoring all of the above which has been evident to most observers of this team).
–
East is usually a good ‘un, as he was observed, recorded and noted to be in his previous performance this season with us. Which is why few will grumble if he makes the odd error here or there. Just a shame or spectacular coincidence that we’ll be lucky to see him and the other good ‘uns twice or more in a season *IBSF*
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So you’re now attackig AFC for putting out attendance figures using the same format as other clubs?
We know what our support is like. Sell out for matches against Barca, empty seats against Hull. Not like there’s a collective of Sado-masochistic glory hunters amongst the AFC ‘support’ is it? You know, the type that hiss at a misplaced pass then cheer a bit of skill (not a new thing btw).
There’s no need to bicker George when people set themselves up with such transparent disingenuity. But fair to say such gibberish is boring, and not relevant to the Football on the pitch.
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If the Arsenal Holes believe that they’ll chase out this current manager after they failed in 2014 then they truly are…?
George didn’t you set this place up in order to not waste your time with such dementia (I am trying to be more polite!)?
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I would guess a few thousand empty seats spread all over so maybe mid 50s – all bought and paid for though
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Well that is interesting – the club are rebuilding/relaying the pitch over the Summer – I wonder if that might have something to do it being reputedly rock hard and the suspicion that it may be responsible in some way for our injuries.
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No Emirates Cup so the club are giving up a few £ to allow the work to be done.
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Anicoll,
Maybe because the 2016 Euro Finals will satiate the fans, and many players will be rested afterwards meaning there will be a lot less interest in the Emirates Cup.
I have not heard the theory that the pitch might be causing the players’ injuries. I am not sure I believe that – the pitch when I have been is so copiously watered that I am surprised how well it drains or we could witness the teams wallowing in glorious mud.
On the other hand – it could be said that I do not have a clue!! And I could not deny that.
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H, It seems inconceivable that the pitch at the Ems, as well as the pitches at Colney have not been designed with some sort of eye to the physiological effects of sportsmen playing on them day and day out but Wenger and he medical crew seem as perplexed as ever to understand just why the instance of strains and pulls seems unstoppable.
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Evening all
I think a top flight football pitch is typically re-laid every 4 or 5 years.
The last time it was done at Emirates was 3 summers ago – if I recall right.
As for Sunday – ho hum.
Arsenal actually played really well – but that killer instinct is lacking.
Everybody knew we needed a second goal or more – hence the attacking minded substitutions. From watching on TV I didn’t think the atmosphere in the stadium was wrong.
Palace’s goal came from a litany of errors. (don’t all goals do?). Gabriel should have kicked Ade into the site hoardings, Coq should have not been turned inside so easily by Bolaise and as for Cech being beaten at his near post? – well well well.
Gabriel I worry about – I hope he has a quite summer and settles down.
Hector’s positional sense needs improving – but he’s young. Jenks will keep him on his toes next season.
Maybe we might see a bit more from Chambers in the remaining weeks.
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Well done, Andrew.
On the day West Ham and Crystal Palace, scored and conceded the same number of goals as the Arsenal.
WHOM would you select from West Ham or Crystal Palace, to improve the Arsenal?
Now a certain Leonardo Ulloa, made a name for himself with Leicester City fans.
Los Papeles de Panamá, tells us that in 2008 Ulloa gave his economic rights and image willingly to, Jump Drive Sport Rights LLC.,, a company registered in New York.
It would seem that the waters run deep and murky, as the administrator and the director of Jump Drive Sport Rights LLC., were not persons but two companies registered in Samoa.
The attorney of Jump Drive Sport Rights LLC. was, Jose Manuel Garcia Osuna, a businessman and former majority shareholder of Club Deportivo Castellón. In 2009,. Garcia Osuna was and still is, currently facing fraud charges, in which he is accused of having pocketed a large percentage of the Ulloa money that allegedly should have beendeposited for Ulloa’s image rights and transfer , to other clubs after leaving UD Castellón..
Ulloa, refused to confirm or deny, the story to El Confidential!
COTG
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It’s my first time viewing your blog and I’m extremely impressed with both the standard and quality of the comments. I’ve met two of today’s bloggers on other sites and from his phraseology I’m sure I know a third.
It’s been an underwhelming season but having been around for a long tome I’ve seen far worse; however from the amount of redundant BS that we are being subjected to one would think that we were fighting against relegation.
Looking back on our PL history there have only been 7 seasons where, at this stage, we had less points – the first 4 seasons and 3 under AW 2005/6 (54), 2006/7 (59) and 2012/13 (57) so at best it’s been a mediocre season.
Who would have thought that we would be in a scrap for the top 4 at this stage – certainly not this blogger.
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no Rosicky for the U21’s tonight, but Wilshere plays, a must win game for the lads
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Welcome GN5 – I have had a wander round AFC blog world today and one striking theme is the number who say they did not watch the game yesterday, or do not intend to watch the following games to the end of the season, that they have “given up”.
We all get disappointed but come on – when your club is finding the going tough, when the breaks are against em, that is when every fan has to play his, or her, part.
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fins 2.08 post, — who is attacking the figures AFC put out for tickets sold, I was interested to know, from someone who was there, what they thought the attendance was, the question was asked, cos I seen some suggest that it was in the mid forties, which I thought was unlikely, and wanted the opinion of a more trustworthy source than the agenda driven.
By the way, unless things have changed, it seems some of the London Underground network will be on strike Thursday evening, and this may very well affect attendance at our game, but I’m sure the agenda driven will claim any lack of attendance will be proof of some sort of boycott.
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7 mins in and the AFC U21’s are behind 1-0
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Good level headed and even review Andrew and agree, excellent company all round, a really super day (apart from the final result).
With regards the playing surface, the pitch at Emirates is regrown from Dutch seed every May/June and takes about ten days to grow back. The pitch system is based on DessoGrass and unless they are rebuilding the entire pitch infrastructure (heating, water distribution/sprinklers, water collection, oxygen blasters, access etc) then I doubt very much will change in terms of the pitch’s hardness. Essentially, it’s not turf (which, ironically, the Dutch import from the UK) but grass grown attached to about 3% plastic grass on a sandy bed The plastic grass is attached to a mesh which gives the pitch it’s strength and the real grass grows around both the mesh and the plastic grass. The enormous artificial lighting rigs that are used all year round enable damaged sections of the ground to be repaired very rapidly – in days, in fact.
My understanding is that Wembley stadium only finally sorted their years-long problem with pitches when they went over to a version of the Arsenal system.
There’s an exact copy of the Emirates pitch up at London Colney.
As well as one called ‘Wigan’ …
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DC
What happened with MD wasn’t cool, not least his attitude in the pitch, hanging the Ox out to dry in those early matches very much not acting like the senior pro he was bought into replace.
With Sagna alongside the other three mentioned above we had a good stable of senior pros in the squad, when Debuchy lost his mojo and desire following serious injury (caused by hacks that weren’t even called as fouls – it’s the frequency of these remarkable and incomparable occurrences that prompts others to write worthy ref reviews).
So as long CJ is ready to go early next season AFC should have to cover to stop a relatively young player from overexposure or just a bit of fatigue. He’d heve been better off at AFC this season then playing in the emergency all action all over the pitch goalkeeping role he was performing this season for West Ham.
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