I tend to avoid giving the idiots among us too much oxygen, the great leveller that is social media already ensures their vapid discharge receives more than enough attention. One theme which has somehow made it into the office past my secretary is the idea that as Arsène paid a lot of money for his new signings he should bloody well play them. With all the self righteous anger of the entitled, these infantile hysterics who have spent years demanding new signings finally get them, and guess what? The so called expert in charge refuses to pick them.
Of course they neatly cherry pick their arguments to fit the pre conceived narrative and so fail to mention Shkodran Mustafi who has gone straight into the team and has pretty rapidly shown us why. They just cannot understand why Lucas Pérez and Granit Xhaka don’t start every game and why we sent Joel on loan and kept Theo.
Now before I go on let me just say, in parenthesis, we here at PA claim no expertise. Nada, nix, zilch. We, unlike the drooling hordes of mindless trend followers who so pollute the atmosphere of any modern debate, are happy, nay delighted to accept that Arsène Wenger and all of his staff know infinitely more about running every aspect of a football club than we do or ever will. The only things we express here are skewed, narrow, prejudicial opinions based on no more than our gut instincts. I have an idea, an uninformed guess as to why the manager hasn’t automatically thrown the new boys into the pot all at once and it is no more than that.
Given the injury situation I believe he had to play Mustafi straight away. It would have destabilised the team to have too many new faces all at once and would hardly have been effective man management to ditch established quality first team players just because he had some shiny new ones in his back pocket.But there is a much bigger point. Arsène didn’t buy these players because Arsenal was desperate. We didn’t finish way off the pace in seventh, eighth or ninth position in the league last year. We came second. We had an excellent group of players albeit a squad with a few gaps in it due to the retirement of our skipper and a couple of old hands moving on to a quiet semi retirement.
Unlike other clubs we didn’t need to buy saviours because we weren’t in dire straits. We bought players to augment an already successful, top class outfit. Man United in contradistinction flung an obscene amount of cash at one player because they needed a talisman, someone to ignite belief that they might just still be in with a shout of rejoining the big boys club. It’s a club they and Liverpool left some time ago and pretenders like Spurs are making serious efforts to join. Arsenal, needless to say, has been a member for ever single year of Arsène’s time in charge.
So no, the manager doesn’t need to throw all his new trains straight onto the Hornby OO gauge track. Neither does he need to take any chances with those coming back from injuries. He can smooth the transition to the Premier League for the new faces and he can ease the wounded back into the fray. He is, in short, building from a position of strength.
Similarly the cup team we fielded against Forest was noticeably stronger than in recent seasons. In fact our cup side and our league side may start to appear quite distinct from one another, with Ospina or Martinez starting in goal and perhaps Lucas up front, Elneny being first first choice in midfield. Then again we have the option to field differing strength cup teams depending upon the perceived strength of our opponents – the permutations are quite fascinating – not to say mouth watering.
Our opposition this evening, while, in theory, not as formidable as Paris St Germain, cannot be taken for granted whatever the make up of our first eleven. Let’s face it, no one in the Champion’s League intends to roll over no matter who they play and Basel have form when it comes to shattering the illusions of cocky Premier League clubs. Unbeaten this season and with a 100% record in the league they have featured in one or other of the European competitions every year since 1999. So they are experienced, in fine form and have no reason to fear any British team.
I mention all this to dispel any of the ridiculous foregone conclusion, gung-ho nonsense some of our fellow fans mistake for positivity and confidence. Saying we ought to murder them just so that you can then berate your own side if you fail to bury the opposition under an avalanche of goals isn’t positivity it is a symptom of an unbalanced mind.
I am positive about tonight. I believe we are in great form both individually and collectively. I believe also that we have players on the bench and occasionally not even in track suits who are extremely capable and desperate to prove their worth if given the opportunity. Whether any of them will get that chance tonight remains to be seen but nothing would surprise me. We have the classic potential banana skin on Sunday with a trip oop north on the weekend following a Champion’s League tie. Under these circumstances we need players to be fresh and sharp. Having said that the season is yet young, the players supremely fit, and they don’t have to travel half way around the globe this evening so an unchanged side, Coquelin and Ospina excepted cannot be discounted.
As I sip from the lucky mug and contemplate another night of European football it is a relief to know that in you I have someone to share the moment, someone who doesn’t believe they know more than the manager but above all someone who recognises what a phenomenal achievement it has been simply to be here yet again. A top four finish isn’t some kind of booby prize it’s the holy grail of every club in the Premier League and we are lucky enough to a follow a team managed by a man who has delivered on this goal year after year after year.
If you’re at the match I trust you’ll be in good voice, if not I’ll see you here at 7.45. Ćao za sada.
Positively Arsenal 
Coquelin shaped hole in our midriff. Hope we find some appropriate filler.
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Come on ye Gunners!
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Arsenal team: Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Cazorla, Xhaka, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Alexis.
Arsenal substitutes: Cech, Gabriel, Gibbs, Elneny, Reine-Adelaide, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas.
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160928/team-news-ospina-and-xhaka-start#ByVaYAGbrMJLKLaz.99
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celtic lead man city 1-0
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Tally ho!
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walcottttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt 1-0
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Theo again. Looks like Arsene knew more about him than a lot of us doesn’t it.
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Theo dovetails with Sanchez in this formation.
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why are we in the away kit at home?
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We are playing some lovely stuff. Who is this fellow Theo Walcott?
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celtic 1-1 man city
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Theo flattening Vikings now.
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image: http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/scaled/696×392/aug_16/gun__1471728610_ozil.jpg
16/17: Leicester v Arsenal – Mesut Ozil
ARSENAL TO WEAR AWAY KIT AGAINST BASEL
Uefa have stipulated that Arsenal are required to wear their away kit for this evening’s Champions League match.
This unusual situation is due to the fact the Gunners’ home shirt clashes with Basel’s red, blue and black home strip.
Basel’s all white away strip is also deemed unacceptable due to the white sleeves on our home shirt. Basel do not have a third strip.
Supporters will recall that it’s not the first time Arsenal have worn an away strip at home. In season 1998/99, the official Uefa kit policy dictated that any clash in first choice kits led to the home team changing shirts – hence we wore our away kit at home to Lens for example.
Pre-Champions League, there was a similar policy in the early 1990s, when you may recall us wearing our away kit in the home game against Benfica in 1991.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160927/arsenal-to-wear-away-kit-against-basel#MEGSPQEy6drthMp5.99
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Do you all see Theo tracking back, covering Bellerin?
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This fluid formation suits Theo so well. Gives him a chance to play a little centre forward all the time utilising his great strengths as a wide forward.
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Shotts I saw that. Hector caught out upfield but Theo prevented them making use of it just by closing aggressively. Intelligent. Football brain.
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But basel appear to be in all white or am i seeing something else?
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TS – do not adjust your set!!
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celtic 2-1 man city
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How does Sanchez change direction so quickly??
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ludogerets 1-0 psg
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“Xhaka hearing the boos of the Basel fans”
No that’s Arsenal fans shouting SHOOT
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That’s where Coquelin wins it back so often – as they start to build after a turn over
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Simple 1 – 2 great finish.
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Who is this fucking new striker for Arsenal? Theo or Walcott?
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I say spiffing!!!
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Walcottttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt 2-0
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so so proud of and happy for theo for sticking to AWs opinion rather than that of the nay sayers!
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Iwobi leathers it at his team mates doesn’t he?
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that was a pen… but theo will get his hattrick am sure
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so if a pen is on you and you also take it who gets the assist?
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celtic 2-2 man city
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Oh boy that was actually some save. Great move. This is gorgeous football.
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almost an outstanding team goal
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See Monreal’s first touch from that clearance??
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Iwobi quiet tonight. Just getting on with his job. Hector desperate to get a goal.
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Didn’t I blog that Mustafi was our most important signing supported by data? Just look at that clearing tackle on a breakaway by Basel.
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This should be 5 – 0 already. Keeper made two outstanding saves.
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Basel should be down 6. This is no fluke Positivistas. This is a rebuilt team by our great manager.
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Haven’t seen football like this since the great Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky midfield.
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HT: Ludogorets Razgrad 1 – 1 Paris Saint Germain
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but Steww “we don’t even play good football anymore”
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Whoops.. just say this on the BBC commentary. LOL… Ball burst
Pass-pass-pass-shoot. Relentless stuff from Arsenal, so much so the ball can’t take any more. It’s burst.
Still, it offers the Basel players the chance for a much-needed breather.
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Steww: “Haven’t seen football like this since the great Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky midfield.”
But this group looks more seasoned. Let’s see if they can put up 10-12 game winning streaks.
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We don’t even play good football anymore.
They say?
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YankeeGunner @YankeeGunner 12m12 minutes ago
This 👏 Is 👏 fun 👏 to 👏 watch 👏
JB™ @gunnerpunner 10m10 minutes ago
This isn’t even fair. Should’ve spent less fucking money.
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ali @aliladiere 27m27 minutes ago
Loooooool we wanted Walcott to go to West Ham Jesus Christ we are a cancerous fan base
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Orbinho @Orbinho 10m10 minutes ago
Theo Walcott had 42 touches in the first half. 42!
He has averaged 40 per 90 minutes over the last two seasons.
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afcstuff @afcstuff 29m29 minutes ago
Alexis Sanchez European record:
At Barcelona:
24 games
3 goals
3 assists
At Arsenal:
18 games
8 goals
8 assists
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celtic 3-2 man city
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