I watched the game from the discomfort of my armchair and believed I had watched a good hard fought sporting encounter between two teams ,although quite a bit below their best, providing a decent game. Little did I know that I should have been booing and cursing at the manager and the players.
I have to admit that I enjoyed it. I don’t think we played anything like our best, but it was a real fight.It was entertaining because it was a contrast of styles. Arsenal had most of the ball and controlled the game on the whole. There was a real lack of quality in the final third though. Sanchez was poor, at best. Its clear why Arsene so quickly gave up om him a a lone central striker. The Ox looked dangerous running with the ball , but ultimately the runs led to nothing. Of the three strikers I thought Theo looked most likely to make a breakthrough. In fact I felt Theo did himself a few favours overall.
Santi seems to be at his creative best when playing deeper and was not anywhere near his magic best in the number 10 role.
However, the back four ,and Cech, all had solid games with Le Coq and Xhaka doing a fine job and anchoring and controlling the midfield
So in summary, back good, front bad.
If I was being balanced I would say Francis should have been dismissed and Hector was lucky not to give away a penalty. But there were enough occasions when Mark didn’t book LCFC players when he could have, and there is an argument to say their player deliberately stuck out a leg (Vardy like). So bollocks to being balanced.
I saw enough from Holding to think he is the bargain of the summer. Or perhaps the ElNeny of this window, if you like?
So that’s about it. I think a draw was a fair result, and I am happy enough with it.
Sorry it’s me this morning instead of the usual treat of Andy Nic. Hopefully everyone will be back to full fitness next week and our stars will return refreshed .
Positively Arsenal 
It is “Mark” now is it ?
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Who the fuck let you in?
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It will be a fleeting visit, that’s for sure.
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Bizarre behaviour you get on here – I had some abusive weirdo dismissing my suggestion that Holding would start today earlier.
dfb if you have anything positive to say then please say it – even if it is simply original or interesting – if you would like to contribute please do so – if not do you think this is the right place for you ?
Don’t feel in any sense personally rejected, it is simply a matter of time and space.
It is 11.20 now – I shall set an 11.30 limit.
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anyone see the clip of wenger talking to a french tv station, so much more at ease, so much happier looking, smiling and looking happy and open. so so different to when he talks to the english media, must be something to do with the english media being such a shower of cunts who like to twist and misrepresent what he says, while the french don’t
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Well that seems to have sorted that bit of confusion out
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olympic final got to extra time
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Nicely done man good man.
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More than good v bad at the front I look at the way we try to use Sanchez, Theo and the Ox and can’t work out what the plan is.
How are our midfield moving the ball, and to where, if we are trying to score a goal?
It did not fit together today until Ozil came on and we got the ball, and some bodies, into the L box – and then it seemed to work well.
Before that though it was all a bit clumsy and misplaced
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Fair assessment George,you’ll be calling ‘Mark’ – ‘Clatts’ this time next week. Is he a mate from the Blackburn S&M community?
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I can’t help it Mel, I’m a friendly guy.
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olympic football final gone to penalties
must say Ginter was outstanding at CB for Germany
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THE 2 Captains with the goals…. nice
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Marvellous game in the Olympic final – two sides giving in their all
An experience of a lifetime for Gnabry
He must thank his lucky stars he is not in Sandwell tonight
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Penalties – it is the final hurdle for two exhausted sets of players
Luck will out, and character, and efficiency
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Ginter with the first penalty – 1-0
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Agusto – 1-1
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Gnabry – 2-1 – goalie got a good touch but enough power on it
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marquinhos – 2-2
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Brandt – 3-2
ref should be booking the brazil goalie over his antics
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rafina 3-3
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germany no.5 – 4-3
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brazil no.7 – 4-4
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petterson – 4-4 – goalie saved it
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neymar – 5-4 brazil win.
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I expected Meyer to take that last kick…
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And much to my surprise it was Brazil that won it.
I did not realise the rule about stopping halfway through the run up to taking a penalty had been done away with ?
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Might come back here more often.. weird to read a balanced piece and not a vitriol of nonsense by people who can’t think for themselves.. agreed on Cazorla by the way.. seems to play better with the whole field in front of him rather than on the half turn in the 10 role.. we upped the game when Ozil and Giroud came on.. I’ve always thought we don’t need a 30 goal striker, but more a focal point and our wingers scoring 20 a piece.. we showed today how much we missed Giroud to offer link play.. Sanchez was too often 50 yards from goal getting in Chamberlain’s way..
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Just checked in to see yesterday’s post shuffled off into history and George up in lights. I thought is was a very good game of football between two teams of contrasting styles. Most of the lemmings on Twitter still live in cuckoo land, thinking that Leicester are some pushovers. I feared them on every counter attack. But the back six played really well. Nobody seems to give credit to Coq for lasting the distance despite an early yellow. In fact the two wide players, Ox and Theo really gave consistent help to their fullbacks unlike last week. Upfront we were not as good, George gave the reasons, no need to repeat. Unlike the Theo bashers, who are wedded to their fixed beliefs regardless, he looked the most threatening of the front three. Two chances he had fell on his weaker left foot, am sure he would have given Schmeichel more worries if they were on his right. First point on the board; a lot more to come imo.
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Thoroughly entertaining game. Coq, Cech, Koscielny and Bellerin were the standouts for me. Holding looks like he’s going to be an animal at CB.
I have no clue why the malcontents are bitching about this game. First of all, Leicester are incredibly to difficult to beat at home and the game was entertaining as fuck.
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I have to say LCFC should thank the gods this game came this early in the season, as considering what we saw from our boys today, at 100%, these guys can’t handle us, but with players missing, others at barely 60%, they managed to hold on and even cause us a few problems. Just look at what happened when Ozil stepped onto the field, Walcott getting caught up by Morgan, Carzola playing uncharacteristically over hit passes among others.
I still think we are in for a good season, and I think we should keep an eye on Walcott and Ox. They seem to be getting better each week, esp Walcott despite what people on twitter say.
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Well that’s two games played, two games enjoyed, for me. Fair write up, too. Sanchez continues to concern; he’s a brilliant player but a little ‘un-Arsenal’ like to my eye. The impact Jack and Ozil made was palpable once introduced to the fray.
We didn’t do enough up front to be able to claim we ‘deserved’ to win but, as others have spotted, we were remarkably solid at the back so a draw can be characterised as two points dropped for the Plucky home side and a fair result overall.
Interesting to see how Liverpool’s form suddenly dipped against little ol’ Burnley yesterday, no doubt the KOB will be convening already, having been teased by last weekend’s results into thinking they were champions elect. Manure are already getting gifts from refs and opponents alike which one hopes won’t continue indefinitely. Not seen anything of Chelsea and City getting results and goals but with score lines that are somewhat flattering.
It’s admittedly a pity we are five points adrift and our actual position understates our potential. It sounds like Arsene is close to one (or two) signings so things may look very different after next week’s game.
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Can I just say how lucky we are to have Stew and Andy to write for us every week,sometimes twice a week, its not at all easy when it comes to it. Though they make it look so,
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Welcome aboard Paul. There is nothing like a new signing to lift us regulars.
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Sorry George but no way should Le Coq have received a second yellow. Not all fouls are yellows and that was a pretty bog standard foul. Secondly your mate Mark overall had a pretty bad game overall. The first penalty shout was spot on however his consistency was let him down, which is the main thing we ask from refs. The Ox was taken out and there was no booking, Bellerin was hit from behind and no booking and yet Holding received a booking for an identicacle challenge in the last few minutes. While he tried to let play go on and play advantage, which I like, he was very selective on where both teams gained that advantage and again here he wasnt consistent.
Under the new rules about holding in the area there were pens at either end so at least he waas consistent there and the Hector pen, well maybe he just wasnt going to give any pens all day.
Anyway enough about clatts. As I said yesterday Leicester were better than they were last season and we were’nt as good wjich made for a level playing field. I thought we played resonably well and finished with four up front going for the win, we also coped with Leicester’s long ball over the top, something which ARSENAL sides pushing forward have failed to do since we changed our style when Arsene arrived. Personally I would have liked to have seen the Ox moved to the right with Alexis on left and taken Theo off, but I would have also taken le Coq off so what do I know.
There were many Positives from the game not least the performance of Holding and the emperious Kos, who was simply imence. Is it all over? Well of course it is, we’re five points behind the top four and we’ve got to go to HULL and back!
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A or B
I thought I had said that .
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After Le Coq moved onto his 1.99 yellow cards with 20+ minutes to go I assumed Arsene would take him off but he was very disciplined for that final phase and I don’t think it made him any less effective. It was exactly the same against LFC where he skated on thin ice for the final quarter.
Regarding the possible second yellow as the old saying goes “I’ve seen them given”. As at Palace (2nd game last season I think) it was Francis’ lucky day.
I am the last man to criticise a player for getting stuck in though.
The trick he needs to learn is not to get that early yellow – easy to say, tougher to do.
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well i’ve never understood this whole thing that a player on a yellow should get a second yellow if he fouls again, why should it normally take three, four or five fouls to get a first yellow, and then one more foul and people are clamoring for a second yellow, surely the same standard should apply to all yellows.
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AA the KOB were on BBC 606 last night, “no better than Rodgers, has to go”, it does seem all clubs have idiot fans, who are more concerned with having their opinion aired than having an opinion of merit.
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I’d say it is more the type of foul that earns you, or does not earn you the second yellow, where it is and the extent of any injury inflicted eddy.
Fortunately Le Coq’s effort erred on the side of lenience for Clattenburg, last season not much more of a foul on Giroud at the Ems saw Simpson sent off for a second offence.
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The old fart’s thoughts
It’s a good thing that Mark Clattenburg was reffing and not me. I would have handed the Foxes two penalties. Just one slo-mo review however, and the first of these showed that it was a really good decision as Kos did brilliantly. Indeed, Kos was a star throughout and guided young Holding through the game, Vardy and Mehrez were very much neutralized. As for the second let’s just say that 6 reviews on both slo-mo and real time make me very glad that Clattenburg did the whistling. On the whole though, he whistled well.
With Le Coq and Granit, the midfield looked defensively a lot better than last week and with Petr in good form we survived all that Leicester had to give. Amazing that the scallies had 80% of the play and over 20 shots against Burnley yet scored zip. Pity they didn’t have the same shooting boots on last week…which of course goes for us as well. Poor Alexis had a bit of a ‘mare, and we somehow managed to leave Theo on the train and Wally played instead.
The Ox was probably our most dangerous forward but with Santi not at his best, little in the way of cast iron chances came our way. Which raises a question in my mind…what has happened to Hector’s ability to get to the by-line? Only once did he show that instinctive skill to send the defence one way whilst going the other. Is he working on instructions not to risk leaving a gap? It strikes me that around 89% of his passes are going square or backwards which is a hell of a waste of his talent. If a gap is left, then get somebody to cover fer rice cakes.
So a 0-0 draw gave no-one any satisfaction, but we gained a point which improves the situation. Three will be so much better.
Keep the faith
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I’m surprised Andy mic hasn’t given more praise to Clatters.
That was a match winning performance from the man in (crushed grape?).
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In other news John Cross has put a dagger into Arsene’s back.
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I’m one of the deluded group that thought yesterday’s 0-0 wasn’t a terrible thing.
Shame on me. (And most of the rest of you on here, too).
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Tbf to Clatters Simpson last season in N5 had been begging to be sent off all game long, he got away with one moments before his second perhaps if he’d have waited before his next brazen foul, however he was undone by his opponents of the day, sometimes you just have to credit the Arsenal IBSF.
Here’s a remarkable stat for AndyNic: according to the Arsenal commentary team Clatters’ penalty difference with Arsenal is plus ten with none awarded against. Hehe!
Now you all know why the stats reviewers over at Untold think of him as, technically, the best official on the roster (way before he got those finals last season).
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Fair assessment, George.
Not to sharp up front, unfortunately. I thought the players took one touch or a couple too many at times when in attack. Hindered us from using our pace as much as we could, I thought.
Koscielny is some player! The young man Holding, held his own. A good looking player.
1 point gained with many more to come. The title is not won or lost after two matches, no matter how much people moan.
Have a blessed day all!
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“Here’s a remarkable stat for AndyNic: according to the Arsenal commentary team Clatters’ penalty difference with Arsenal is plus ten with none awarded against.”
I have always had a bit of time for Clatters – he tried to salvage a point for us at the Hawthorns last season but Santi messed it up.
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Alexis is not as fit as Aguero ATM, the comparison being made as they both played in the Copa:
Alexis was blowing after 50minutes against Liverpool and struggling to make the runs. He might have recovered from that ankle hack in the final of the Copa but obviously he’s a bit behind in his fitness as a consequence. In an ideal world he’d have only have made the bench for the first time on Saturday.
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Just in case any psychotic football experts out there reading this who like to excite themselves at the thought that the majority who support the club and manager are incapable of thinking they are fallible, I would say that Sanchez should’ve been withdrawn for Giroud and not Chamberlain on Saturday.
Though there is also the understanding that he might have been left on as these minutes are his pre-season, in which case it is or was the right call…
…fortunately not my call to make!
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Glad fins pointed that out about Simpson last year, remember Leicester fowling was a tactic in that game and the ref helped them immensely. Simpson was one of several who could of gone that day.
I disagree with those saying the Kos decision was a brilliant one and think this a problem with the way we regard penalties. From clatts position (he had a player in the way) he probably couldn’t of seen the actual challenge just the direction of where the ball went. Remembering a ref needs to be sure when he gives a penalty on both these reasons he couldn’t give it especially when the official nearest the incident didn’t give it either. It was the right decision but certainly not brilliant.
On the Hector decision he had to make the decision on his own and he had a clear view. Obviously having watched it again it was a definite pen however if clatts decided he couldn’t tell whose leg became entangled first maybe that’s why he didn’t give it.
On the point about Hector’s forward movement and overlapping, several times Theo had moved so far inside Hector could only go backwards and he seemed isolated on the right side. The Ox and Nacho were working much better on the left which is one of the reasons I found it strange Theo wasn’t first to come off.
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