Good Morning Positive Arsenal,
And how are each of you this fine Wednesday morning ?
Quite chipper I’d guess !
I suspect a lot of you, endured the fluctuations of technology while watching last night’s game, with streams coming and going, and providing a timely reminder of what reliable and comprehensive football coverage provides us. We may despise those damned TV corporations, bloodsuckers, leeches etc, but if that is the alternative their business model is safe for the foreseeable future.
Having dealt with that broadcasting foible a thoroughly enjoyable game took place. Our line up provoked a predictable mix of enthusiasm tinged with caution, with the mix of new faces, old’ish hands and promotions from the youngsters, and even in those promotions the position of Maitland-Niles at right back was a surprise to me. Perhaps the boldest initiative was the bench, with six teenagers in situ. As George said last night with a bench like that the Arsenal game plan is “shit or bust”.
Of the game itself and how these Wengerian schemes might work, or not perhaps? To quote Brian Clough “We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right” and so Wenger’s selections and team set up proved that managerial aphorism almost perfectly, with Granit thumping in the first goal just 3 minutes shy of Old Big Head’s proposed schedule. Stand off the player 30 yards out and you will be punished. Did no one at Forest watch the Hull game ?
It is so, so important if you have a mix of young and experienced players that that first goal. After it went in we relaxed and every player had a little more confidence on the ball. Equally after a decent start Forest deflated after going a goal behind, the crowd noise sagged, the night for the home side slowly began to unravel. Very much a contrast to events at Hillsborough in our previous League Cup game.
Having gone ahead Forest kept up their end until half time, with a number of agricultural challenges that on another night might have led to greater official retribution. Martinez was never really troubled once week ahead. NF had one genuinely good player in Pereira, I thought. The rest were worker bees, willing but limited.
As a result, and as you saw, in the second 45 we strolled through the game. I was pleased to see Perez assert himself with a good aggressive goal. It is a long time since I have seen a centre back bullied off the ball like that. I thought his penalty was good as well. Almost like he practiced putting it beyond the keeper and into the corner !
Goal four for the Ox rounded off the evening, good for him and a boost to his still fragile confidence. His passing in the first half was, to put it bluntly, on occasions “wild”. A deep breath required young man.
All round a thoroughly competent performance. Young players all gained valuable experience, Elneny and Xhaka proving a cameo of an alternative high quality midfield pairing, Perez showed he is more than happy to “do it” on a Tuesday night in Nottingham. And NO injuries. Now that is a bonus.
Given it was the 12th anniversary of the death of Mr Clough I thought I would close with a second quote from that gentleman, made on the day the Invincibles passed the Forest unbeaten League record;
“I’m loath to confess they could be as good as us. They are brilliant. It sticks in the craw a little bit because nobody likes Arsenal! Of course there’s a Frenchman in charge, Wenger, and not many English people like Frenchmen. He is a top, top manager”
Enjoy the midweek. We have work on Saturday to look forward to.
Positively Arsenal 
He did warn them though
Don’t employ that twat
LikeLike
LikeLike
west ham v chelsea
LikeLike
man utd v man city
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arsenal v Reading
LikeLike
Liverpool v Tottenham
LikeLiked by 2 people
Bristol city v Hull
LikeLike
leeds v norwich
newcastle v preston north end
LikeLike
southampton v sunderland
LikeLike
Nobody really wanted Manuyoohino to lose tonight, let their death throes beaslong and as agonising as possible this season.
As some of you have noted – they had to play a virtually full strength team tonight – such is the destruction Jose has done to their reserves.
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reading!
Here’s hoping for another 7-5 goal feat!!!
LikeLiked by 4 people
chelsea play man utd on the sunday prior to both clubs efl midweek cup games
LikeLike
Arsenal’s next 7 games: – time for the fans to do their part in making the Emirates a fortress
(H) Chelsea
(H) Basel
(A) Burnley
(H) Swansea
(H) Ludogrates
(H) Middlesbrough
(H) Reading
LikeLiked by 2 people
More chipper by the minute.
LikeLike
Carlsberg don’t do cup draws but if they did ….
LikeLiked by 1 person
what a difference a week makes, 26,244 turned up for their game at shite hart lane tonight v gillingham. its almost as if they have glory hunters for fans.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rob Dawson @RobDawsonMEN 33m33 minutes ago
United get City in League Cup. Game will be on Oct 25/26. Means United have run of Liverpool (a), Fenerbahce (h), Chelsea (a), City (h).
LikeLiked by 2 people
Xhaka lakka Boom boom Ding dong Side-by-side:
https://streamable.com/g2dq
LikeLike
A5.
I must say, that’s a great write up.
LikeLiked by 2 people
clearly the BPL’s drug procedures are not working – kyle walker is on something he should not be
http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/37434325
LikeLike
On this day back in 1996……
LikeLiked by 4 people
You’d think someone might have written a blog about it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think I’ve seen one or two knocking about Stew.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My personal thanks to AW.There’s been some heart ache and some tough moments, but some fabulous,fabulous football and some great, great moments.And here’s to a load more.
We’re still on for all the trophies possible, now that would be one mf of a season-one to get revenge on all the dung that’s been flung our way over the years. “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?”
Cheers AW, greatest manager at AFC in my 38 years.And the greatest manager currently in the PL.A major,major force on football,and he came to us!
LikeLiked by 5 people
I was in my car driving to Sheffield on the evening AW’s appointment was announced, as I remember it. Radio on, we were losing to Monchengladbach.
Who would have thought eh ?
Sheffield ….
LikeLike
Well written, as usual by the tireless A5!
Mr Wenger’s official start date, was 1st October 1996.
Nonetheless, a nice write-up by The Guardian. The Daily Mail, has a man on the inside, at he beginning, with Martin Keown. With the Daily Mirror, the usual knock-about, with the facts.
I would recommend The Guardian, as being more insightful?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Supporters Forum – September 10th, 2016.
Held at Highbury House
http ://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160921/supporters-forum-september-10-2016#GLcA0FBIUZG1vqIx.99
for the minutes of the meeting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
JB™ @gunnerpunner 1h1 hour ago
Only 3/11 players who started against Hull were in the first team squad in June 2013… (Koscielny, Cazorla & Walcott)
LikeLike
LikeLike
Wenger says Arsenal being over cautious with Ramsey injury cos Aaron is not completely confident to push it, so every time he feels any pain in his hamstring we ease off his training, and its unlikely that he will be fit for Wales in their upcoming games.
Ramsey’s injury is a grade 1 hamstring injury.
LikeLike
Team news – no new injuries, Giroud trained yesterday, and will have a fitness test today to decide if he will be involved in the chelsea game. Ramsey unlikely to be fit for any of our games pre international break.
LikeLike
Arsenal FC @Arsenal 4m4 minutes ago
Best way to deal with Diego Costa? #AFCvCFC
🗣 “By being cold-blooded and respecting the rules of the game”
Have you discussed squad discipline ahead of #AFCvCFC?
🗣 “Yeah, the way we behave will be important”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wenger would not be drawn into making a big thing of joe say, and said playing chelsea is no bigger or smaller a game with or without joe say there.
He said he has not seen joe says book, and he “certainly will not read it”
LikeLike
He would not be drawn on if Xhaka would start tomorrow,
“we had good performance at Hull, and good performance at Nottingham Forest, so everyone deserves to play, decisions will be made today”
LikeLike
so now its claimed that an arsenal player actually texted jose last season and told him arsenal’s planned tactics for their game with chelsea,
if true whatever player done it, needs dumping.
oddly despite Cech being the only ex chelsea player, and ozil the only other player we have who has played for jose, I see malcontents for some reason pointing the finger at Ramsey
LikeLike
I find it laughable that so called Arsenal fans are backing joe say in all this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
utdreport@utdreport
Mourinho on Wenger in 2014: “I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face.” [mail, rob beasley]
Mözart @AFCMozart 10h10 hours ago
Jose did find Wenger outside a football pitch. He asked if he could sit next to him, and got rejected, causing all his peers to laugh at him
LikeLiked by 1 person
In the minds of the frightened,spinning in a torment of powerlessness, the fantasies of strength and invincibility rage like furies,acting out scenarios where they defeat the enemy object of their mind.The fear he has of AW must be extreme, to warrant such extreme statements.
As Wenger is aware,and hence his attitude to life, the mind will undo us if we do calm it down.
LikeLiked by 5 people
(duh) if we dont calm it down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If true, Jose is looking an increasingly sad figure. He really does seem obsessed with Wenger.
There will come a time when the only ones who have any love and respect for him will be nostalgic Chelsea fans, and the WOB
LikeLiked by 2 people
mandy the wob will stick with him longer than any chelsea fan
LikeLiked by 1 person
May well be true Eduardo, they seem to love their Chelsea…and for that matter, Tottenham managers
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sure, an Arsenal player texted Jose, and the ref went in Barca’s dressing room that time, and Clattenberg racially abused Mikel.
In the extremely unlikely event of it being true, it’d mean we have/had a coward to match Jose in the dressing room.
Anyone capable of that, who dared take the wages from the club and pretended to be a different thing every day at work, would be as low down as Jose himself. That’s pretty damn unlikely.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I have no way of knowing the truth about an Arsenal player texting tactics to Mourinho, but I do know that it is b*ll*cks!
LikeLike
I think it was Gus Caesar
LikeLike
Why lower ourselves to discuss Daily Mail clickbait?
LikeLiked by 1 person
For any who come across the Times today a respectful two page on Arsene from Oliver Kay with extensive interviews with Pat Rice and David Dein. It is behind the paywall so not clickable if you are not a subscriber but enjoy a few words from the article;
“He has such a love for this club,” Pat Rice, his former assistant, says, fit and healthy again as he agrees to a rare interview to discuss Wenger’s latest — and potentially final — milestone as Arsenal manager. “He’s one of the best things that has ever happened to this club. Everything he does, everything he thinks about, his mind is always focused on ‘How can we improve Arsenal?’ I just wish he was young enough to stay for another 20 years.”
“Look at what he did with Cesc Fàbregas, Ashley Cole, so many others. Look at Héctor Bellerín and Alex Iwobi now. If you were the parent of a talented player, where would you send him? If you were doing the right thing, you would send him to Arsenal. That’s because of Arsène. He has remained at the forefront, the cutting edge. But sometimes the cloth you’ve got isn’t as good as the cloth you had before. Sometimes you can’t justify paying the exorbitant fees that others do.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
We won the league with Gus Ceasar
LikeLike
I always felt that Gus was scapegoat in that game. OK so he stumbled at first and made a mess of not booting it into the stands, but the Luton no12 (Mark Stein?) held him back to stop him wacking it out at the second go,and then Nige didnt do much better.
One of those weird games that we should have won-but it must have been really exciting for the neutral, as it was one heck of a game…
I always thought (could be wrong) that Nick Hornbys book brought necessary attention to Gus and that moment that ingrained itself in peoples minds(could be wrong again, though)
Question is if you had to choose to be Gus and that situation or Gordon Smith v ManUre (“Smith must score and Smith hasnt scored”)…
LikeLike