Good morning Positives old and young,
There is a concept much bandied about by the punditti of “Winning Ugly” which, on most occasions as far as I can see, involves a team playing poorly, having a slice of luck, clinging on like grim death to fortune’s undeserved award and making off with the points.
Well last night I think our lads may have coined/created the new concept of “Winning Beautiful”. Let me elaborate. I have in mind Arsenal were playing football of the highest quality from the start of the match, dominating the opposition all over the pitch for 92 minutes, scoring two delightful and entirely deserved goals. There was no fouling, diving or cheating, and we earned an entirely justified reward. Every man of the 14 who played was a credit to the club, to the fans and to their old Mums. So Mr Shearer, Mr Murphy and Mr Lineker poke that up your collective pipe of inane jargon for future reference.
Of the game itself I had the advantage of not seeing it live and suffered no distractions from social media. Santi buzzed like a hornet and I doubt he has had a more influential game in the past three seasons. Hector showed an attacking, creative flair that makes me wonder whether a Philip Lahm style move forward into midfield might not be in his future ( if of course we did not have such a plethora of talent across our middle regions). Another defensive masterclass from Kosc and Mustafi, with it taking an hour for the Swiss to land a shot of goal, and even that was from outside the box. Credit to Ospina, called from his slumber just once but his sharp Colombian hand saved the one decent effort from the Toblerone toilers.
But you are waiting for me to come to the two men on whom our evening pivoted, nay I would say “pirouetted”. I think we now all know why Arsene decide to persevere with Alexis as a striker don’t we ? The system just about clicked perfectly into place last night, with balls wedged over the top of the Basel defence to the Chilean, not too hard, not too soft, just perfect. And when it did not go over the Basel defence, Sanchez dropped short and went through them. It has taken five/six games to really work as well as it did last night, and for Santi, Mesut, Theo and Alex Iwobi to find the right wavelength but the reception as clear as a bell last night.
And top of the class our reborn right winger, the man of the moment, who can’t stop banging then in Theo Walcott. He absolutely terrified the Swiss left back Traore from the first whistle. The visitors never found an answer to his running. What struck me is there was so much confidence in the player last night, a certainty that when he took on man he would pass him, or hit a shot it would be on target.
For our visitors Vaclik was outstanding and the reason a 2-0 win was not 5.
It would have been pleasant to see a score that reflected our dominance, and the one irritation of the evening was the number of presentable chances that were not converted. Sanchez hoofing the advertising hoarding in frustration on 89 minutes indicated that he was not satisfied. That may however be a feature of “Winning Beautiful” – less is more.
Highly competent referee – young chap, just 33 – Danny Makkelie – I bet we hear more of him.
So onward to Turf Moor on Sunday and no doubt a rousing, meat and potato pie throwing welcome from Lancashire’s finest. A little rotation in order you ask ? We shall see. One tinkers with such precision engineering very carefully.
Enjoy your week.
Positively Arsenal 
Sniper @clockendsniper 13h13 hours ago
Can’t wait for the next BBC anniversary special where they invite Wayne Bridge to talk about John Terry’s career.
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Keown’s cold condesencion and barely concealed desire to throttle was quite entertaining between the fast forwards through that well known sociopath’s gibberish.
But given many who would’ve been forwarding through that programme: It was a crock of shite.
Also note how the media twats were quite distant in their final understandings to the footballers. Ian Wright is a complex character but if you were in the trenches I think he’d be of more value then such lickspittles. A very telling programme if you pay attention to the fine details.
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Didn’t watch it. Gave up on BBC sport a long time ago and in any case I won’t have filth like Morgan in my home.
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Rory Smith *shudders*
Another prized plum.
Don’t go there pips!
I’m starting to compose an empirical database here (of gibberish) that might help to explain how England lost to Iceland…
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Ha, I just wrote about how I hunted for the prog in question, at length. I even added a link to that section of the “show”, In short, I found it horrible,
Having lost all I’d written, I conclude the loss ‘was meant to happen’, Listening to that made me feel awful, and having refreshed the page I see that Steww had the right idea all along, and I’ll not post the link.
I understand your post now though, Fins. Thanks.
May I uber “Like” PG’s 29/9/16 @ 4:46: “I love this blog”.
‘Warmth’ returns.
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Another good review
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsene-wenger-arsenal-news-20th-anniversary-success-how-long-manager-a7338281.html
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“If Wenger’s devotion to young talent needed statistical proof, 131 of the 210 players to have made their Arsenal debuts under him were aged 22 or younger at the time. 36 of those won 76 major trophies with Arsenal; that gives every Arsenal debutant aged under 23 a 27% chance of winning silverware with the north Londoners. Furthermore, an Arsenal debutant, on average, goes on to make 57 appearances for the club. Impressive stuff, in which the Frenchman deserves copious amounts of credit”.
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the financial results are out for year ending may 2016
Click to access gun__1475228662_Arsenal_Holdings_plc_-_year_en.pdf
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YOUNG KEEPER JOINS CLUB’S ACADEMY
Young goalkeeper Alex Crean has joined our Academy as a young professional.
The 17 year-old stopper came through the youth ranks at Crystal Palace, before continuing his development with Celtic.
Known for his bravery and athleticism, Alex is a Scotland youth international.
We would like to welcome Alex to the club.
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/20160930/young-keeper-joins-club-s-academy#0oFZZ80lbjYDOJ0O.99
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SIR CHIPS BIGS UP SPENDING, WARNS OVER CASH RESERVES
By arseblog – September 30, 20169
Sir Chips Keswick has been keen to play up Arsenal’s spending as the club’s financial results were released, but also to clear up any misunderstandings about the strength of the club’s cash reserves.
Pointing out the 2016 acquisitions of Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Lucas Perez, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Takuma Asano and Kelechi Nwakali, he said the club made sure not to overspend, leaving them room to make further signings should they so desire.
In the full statement released by the club today, he said, “Our cash reserves at the end of the year stood at £226.5 million and this figure will doubtless attract the usual speculation from fans and commentators.
“That being the case, it is my duty to point out that after excluding debt service reserves and amounts owed to other clubs on past transfers the balance reduces to £149 million.
“This figure is in itself inflated, due to the seasonality of our cash flows, by advance sponsorship and season ticket receipts for the new season.
“Against the underlying balance of available funds we have, as mentioned above, invested strongly in player acquisitions during the summer at a total transfer in cost of more than £90 million with additional significant commitments to player wages, agent’s fees and performance related contingencies on top of that.”
He continued by insisting this would remain the club’s approach in the future.
“Whilst we have spent strongly we have not over stretched,” he said. “It would have been bad business practice not to have retained some small degree of flexibility to allow us to invest again in the right player and / or to maintain the current squad as and where we want to offer improved and extended contracts for key players.
“We make our investments on a prudent and reasoned basis which is something the Club does well and which is even more important in a competitively inflated marketplace.
“This approach has served us well and it will continue.”
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Gazidis “Within our football operation we have welcomed 27 new coaches,
analysts, fitness experts and support staff in the last year”
Gazidis “Our transfer policy has a simple focus – to sign players who can add quality to our squad either immediately or in the medium term.”
Sir Chips “since Stan Kroenke became our majority shareholder we have invested some GBP350m”
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Matt Spiro @mattspiro 5h5 hours ago
Robert Pires in L’Equipe: ‘My next step with #Arsenal would be to become sporting director. That’s what I want and Arsene knows it’
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Matt Spiro @mattspiro 5h5 hours ago
More Pires: ‘But what Arsene has done for me already, allowing me to train every day with the team, is unique in Europe. I’m very grateful’
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BK-wZ3Dhi83/?taken-by=cakpom
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Mark HughesVerified account@Hughes_Mark
The Telegraph’s latest #football4sale allegations concern Harry Redknapp. Full story on http://telegraph.co.uk soon
you could knock me down with a feather
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I am critical of the official Arsenal twitter, but who ever is running it now does do somethings right, like today when they were showing that RVP volley v Charlton, from ten years ago, the comment the official Arsenal twitter made was
“no matter what you think of him now”
now that is a subtle little remark, for the snake.
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ha ha ha ha, AST trying to claim they have influence, when at no point did AFC say the advice they paid KSE for would be an on going matter. I wonder why AST have so far not taken credit for AFC no longer giving AST £250K to piss against a wall.
AST @AST_arsenal 1h1 hour ago
AST delighted that Arsenal Board has responded to our challenge to its corporate governance by ending £3m consultancy fee to Kroenke
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Arsenal U18’s away to spurs u18’s this morning, kick off at 11.
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Breaking News
AST delighted that Arsenal Board have confirmed that payments to M Arteta, M Flamini and T Rosicky have ended. AST said they were worried that these payments would continue as such payments showed up in the clubs accounts in recent years. AST had no comment to make when questioned on the use of £250K paid to AST by Arsenal FC.
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U18s FT: Spurs 2-4 Arsenal
spurs took the lead at end of first half, Pileas leveled for Arsenal, Joe Willock gave us the lead, spurs leveled within minutes, and in the 89th minute Willock scored again, and in the 94th minute schoolboy Coyle sealed the victory for Arsenal.
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Never mind the football hacks and the Moron, some genius finally came up with the concept of putting a camera in front of aw and some former players, not a hack or plundit in sight, and the resulting conversation and insight utterly and completely dismiss’ the memes and mantras that have been pumped out by the Arsenal Holes over the years.
I recommend the BBC football focus convo. between aw, Ian wright, Sol Campbell and William Gallas.
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Arsenal Fixture News @AFCFixtureNews 30m30 minutes ago
Full Time from Hotspur Way
U18’s Won 4-2 😃
Trae Coyle on full Time!
U16’s Won 5-1 😃
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Scott Chickelday @scott_c9 23h23 hours ago
Pleased to announce @oracle_sports_ Alex Crean signed a pro deal at @Arsenal well done Alex 💪🏻
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Jeorge Bird @jeorgebird 23m23 minutes ago
Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Jeff Reine-Adelaide have travelled with the first-team for the Burnley game.
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jack stephenson @jacktruthafc 3h3 hours ago
Paul Merson ” Chelsea are my team and if they don’t finish in the top 4 they are done ” says it all
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Is it just me or is all these people suddenly being nice about Arsene makes me uncomfortable.
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Andy Kelly @Gooner_AK 7h7 hours ago
How sp*rs supporting Matthew Norman of the Evening Standard welcomed Arsene Wenger to #Arsenal
#Wenger20
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Seeing a shower of absolute bastards, currying favour on the back of Arsene’s 20th anniversary ,is turning my stomach.
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Dear Positivistas
This is a must read. It is gold dust. The last 20 years could all have never been:
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Geo py
I knew of the story but not the level of detail in that article. Very much appreciated. Thanks.
It’s not necessary to watch this but…
Danny Welbeck v Leicester:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kjVhZb0SY00
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Come on Steww.
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🎶Why are we waiting
Why-i are we waiiiiting
Why la la la la la la la
Laaaa la la-la?
Why…🎶
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Man City two goals down because their defence is terrible and their midfield is being overwhelmed by Spurs very basic but effective pressing game. Pep is still a genius right?
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