I grew up immersed in radio. Probably as a result of being brought up by parents who in their turn were raised during the medium’s golden age. As with many people of my generation I swiftly tired of the feeble and inane antics of the gormless, coiffured imbeciles who polluted the airwaves from the studios of Radio 1. It wasn’t so much their crushing insincerity which so turned me off as their obvious lack of discernment, knowledge of and love for music. The very stuff on which their careers depended.
There were always exceptions, usually shunted to the graveyard shifts and all of whom no matter how dedicated and worthy slid into the shadow of one truly remarkable man. John Peel wasn’t just ahead of the curve, John Peel often decided what shape the curve ought to be. He was also honest, unfeigned in his enthusiasms and scathing in his dismissal of the worst excesses of the industry he had graced with his presence long before I became aware of his work.
I am in fact listening to one of his broadcasts from 1981 as I write this and he has just effortlessly and with delicious, well judged perversity segued from Scientist Meets Roots Radics into The Birthday Party as only he could. This is courtesy of a rather splendid blog called The Perfumed Garden and if you’re a fan I suggest you have a gander.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but I often didn’t bother to listen to his shows in the later years. I would sometimes catch him on Radio 4 on a Saturday morning when he presented Home Truths but oftentimes was stupidly casual where his music show was concerned. I assumed, well, I suppose I just assumed he’d always be around and I could dip in and out like a kleptomaniac at a Wilko’s pick ‘n’ mix stand.
Of course Peely upped and died on us in October 2004 and I was bereft in a way no ‘celebrity’ death has affected me before or since. It was a salutary lesson. Nothing is forever, no one will be a permanent fixture in our lives. That which we enjoy today will soon be the stuff of fading memory. Much, much sooner than we ever imagine. Who, for example, could have envisaged that watching Tomáš Rosický as he pirouetted through and around a hapless opposition midfield and defence would already be just so much nostalgia?
Football is an especially transient business with individuals and indeed entire squads seeming to evaporate into the ether. Given that we have all experienced this time and again and given that we have therefore a sense of the impermanence of the component elements of that which gives us so much joy, doesn’t it strike you as crazy that we spend so much of our precious time arguing, haranguing one another and worrying about what the irredeemably irrelevant such as Piers Morgan might or might not have been saying lately?
Just because Arsène Wenger has been around since the Pleistocene I fear that many people may make the mistake I made with John Peel and simply take the great man for granted. Those of us who revere him, those who for their own tangled, deranged and unhappy reasons detest him, both like to indulge in heated debate about what will happen when he’s gone. This and most other silly disputes are simply distractions and if we spend too long down such rabbit holes we may pop our bewildered heads back above ground one day to find the Wenger era is suddenly no more and instead of enjoying every single last second of it we were down the pub when we might have been sitting at home with the radio on.
The current Arsenal squad is a case in point. Already we have witnessed passages of play and goals to rank with the very best that Wengerball has had to offer. That we might be witnessing something special is transparently obvious and worrying about whether the run can last or whether Aaron can regain his place or if Jack’s loan is a precursor to his exit or if Hector will ‘do a Cesc’ is the most idiotic waste of the moment I can image.
Now don’t panic I’m not going to give you any Mindfulness psychobabble about ‘living in the now’ I’ll leave that to the next David Brent impersonator you end up trapped with on a professional development seminar at work. I’m simply aware that we live in age of multiple distractions and it is all too easy to spread the jam a little too thinly. Often I hear people say they can’t enjoy the game for fear of losing and the resultant fall out with mates and colleagues. I myself have missed goals while furiously typing to nobody at all my thoughts on some irrelevant detail during the build up.
If we don’t enjoy every single second of Mesut Özil, every moment of a resurgent Theo Walcott because we’re too busy fuming at the brainless questions some semi literate hack spewed at Arsène in the recent presser then we will regret it. Trust me.
And so to today’s feast of football fun. Swansea have, lately, been like the head of a Playmobil figure trodden on by the bare foot of a hungover divorcee the day after his kids went back to their mother and Brian. In our last five meetings we’ve only beaten them once and in the last three home fixtures they’ve beaten us twice and drawn once. If you want to go right back to our first Premier league encounter with the chaps from Dylan’s ‘ugly, lovely town’ the stats show an absolute balance. A perfect tie, with both sides winning and losing seven and drawing two.
Can we tilt the see-saw our way this afternoon? Hell yes. Of course we can. Can they frustrate us once again? Well, it’s sport, everything is possible, no matter how apparently unlikely. I say unlikely simply because no matter how well Swansea have faired against us historically, this season they are on a dismal run of form. Taken over the previous six matches the form table shows us at the top and our visitors anchored to the bottom.
I have no clue what to expect from Swansea today. Their manager is untested in the Premier League but early indications suggest that he feels a lack of fitness to be at the root of their travails thus far. If so it seems unlikely such a concern can have already been addressed – these things take time. Also a side like Arsenal which often increases the intensity of their game the longer the match goes on is probably the last opponent Bob Bradley would have chosen to meet.
Performances following the hated international break can be patchy but are usually successful. Either way I intend to enjoy every moment. Each beautifully timed interception from Kos or Mustafi, each rapier thrust from Hector, every astonishing piece of control from Santi or Mesut. All of it, I will be watching as if it’s my last match, I refuse to be that guy who looks around in astonishment one day as he realises that the Wenger era passed him by. As good and as inspirational as this vintage John Peel show might be, watching highlights of an old game is no substitute for the visceral thrill of the real thing.
Positively Arsenal 
And now taking the free kick from ten yards forward is acceptable. Eh?
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He is definitily a Ref you instinctively want to punch in the face. Got an issue with us for sure
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My point about the commentators is the PGMOB knows they have media cover to cheat Arsenal.
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4 minutes of injury time to be played
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Are people leaving??? Seriously?
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look at all them cunts leaving the stadium, talk about shit supporters
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Predictable really, they must know they will get a free one after Kos’s goal caused such an outcry last time out. I don’t know how many offside goals i’ve seen Man U score with barely a whimper
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how the fuck theo, oh my god what a miss
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Oh my Theo! Oh my. It was so good.
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Hit the bar.
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Fuck that was tense! Grit eh?
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phew!!! Keep grinding them out afc!
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Three big fat beautiful points and City drawing.
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Spuds free kick in injury time. Saved! Corner.
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FT: 3-2
theo got two, but really should have had 4, xhaka gifted them a goal, moss gifted them an extra two men, himself and the sent off xhaka.
a big win in the face of the best the pgmol can do, of course we can expect the malcontents to have a go at our players and manager, and especially xhaka and walcott.
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Spuds draw!
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Theo’s head was up and leaning back when he whacked that cross from Chamberlain.
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The streak continues PA. Despite the cheating PGMOB and down to 10-men. Whisper it: stuff of champions.
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Arsenal now 2nd, level on pts with city, 1 goal less of a GD, above spurs by a point too.
so its only taken us six games to haul in the 5pt lead city had on us, just in case you want to tell anyone who were in meltdown after our first two games. Maybe Pep has not reinvented the wheel after all
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must say again, what a shower of cunts all those fans are who streamed out of the stadium with injury time to play, a disgrace the lot of them
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Well that was an afternoon that had the lot – and we finish it joint top with Citeh though one back on goal difference. Yeah – I enjoyed that.
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I enjoyed it in a cat on hot bricks kind of way.
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well i can see the write ups now from the malcontents,
xhaka a liability
theo a waster
defense all over the place
alexis no striker
what does iwobi actually do
lucky arsenal
wenger still not got a clue
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by the way, I’ve already seen several so called Arsenal fans say Xhaka’s red was correct call. No need to ask if they are WOB or not.
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@ Steww LOL. cat on hot brick brings to mind no enjoyment at all except it is a cold day and the heat may yet have value!
Well done with the write up
Glad we held on for the points although it could as easily be 7 – 2. between Alexis and theo and the off sides
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got to love the BBC,
“city top, and AFC move above spurs due to spurs drawing at wba”
they make it sound like we are still way off city, not -1 goal behind them.
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The match was terrifying towards the end. Coquelin calmed me down somewhat. Gibbs and Ox did the job with fresh legs. Ref Moss is a real excrement – he has some issue with Arsenal.
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Sav – Moss is just another shit, incompetent member of the PGMOL. I wonder if Arsenal will appeal the red.
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Joint top ain’t bad. Altogether a very capital Saturday.
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I think Gibbs was a great stabilising influence on the left, Barrow had the better of Montreal prior to being substituted
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Well said, markyb.
You understand the fix, and it saves me having to point out how moss & co will do everything to **** The Arsenal.
I saw many, many fouls, some vicious, which were played on or ignored – coming from Swansea. To look at Theo, as the Swan player did, then poke him in the eye, could’ve been a red, but no, it’s an Arsenal player.
Whilst NBC’s plundit pointed out incorrect offsides and not given fouls (for Arsenal), he had no problem bemoaning Swansea’s inability to move the ball well, esp. in the 1st half, and he was annoyed Arsenal couldn’t be further punished.
So, well done Arsenal. You beat Swansea and the ref and….
COYG
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an absolute terrible ref performance has not stopped us dealing with our second win against bogey sides this season. I said earlier this side would find a way to win and in the end we did even though we nearly found a way to draw. Under normal circumstances an appeal would win against the red card although I cant see the ref agreeing to look at it again but I wonder if a tap tackle has ever resulted in a sending off before when the player wasn’t last man. These decisions that are so strange will always open up the thought of bent officials and I cant really think of another reason for the action taken.
Overall we played some nice football again and you have to be pleased with six wins on the trot.
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on the sending off, for me it should be a red card offence, when a deliberate foul is committed to stop a breakaway attack, but as things stand it is not, its a yellow, so until the rules are changed then all xhaka should have got was a yellow and Moss should be demoted from the PGMOL list for at least a few weeks.
By the way don’t be surprised if Wenger gets charged by the FA for foul and abusive language at Moss, as according to the BBC, AW used some very industrial language at Moss over the sending off, can only assume Moss did not hear it, but we all know how the FA work, BBC mention it, they are likely to see if there is any charge they can lay at Arsenal.
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the BBC commentator summed up our performance when he said Arsenal’s football was “almost brilliant”, and we were just a fraction out with our passing or final ball or finishing, otherwise it would have been breathtaking football.
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It would not usually be a red, but it should be, every time
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Chris Wheatley @ChrisWheatley_ 31m31 minutes ago
Wenger on Xhaka red card: “It looked harsh to me. A dark yellow. But the referee went for a bright red”
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Master class by Moss on how to fix a match
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Tom Gordon @GoonerGordo 1h1 hour ago
I’ve never before believed match fixing existed in the Premier League, but after witnessing this performance from John Moss, it does.
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I hate those kind of fouls (because we are so often the victim of them given our fast, skill full forwards and our speedy counter attacking game) and would be delighted if there was a card between yellow and red for them. 10 minute sin bin and yellow card maybe.
As the rules stand I cannot remember ever seeing a red for that tackle in that part of the pitch. The Swansea player’s (over) reaction was a pretty sorry spectacle too.
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Well. I stand corrected. It was a trip ,rather than a kick.
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ha ha ha, I’ve now seen supposed arsenal fans claim xhaka’s trip was him “raking the achilles”, how can we complain about how the media treat us, when our own are far worse.
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No, it was a kick. Red.A trip would be around the ankles, he kicked him at knee height.
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Sorry guys and gals. There is no giving Moss the benefit of the doubt on that red card for Xhaka. There is nothing in the rules that justify a red. No excessive force, no last man between the goal. Furthermore week after week in the PL and other leagues we see players deliberately stopping a breakaway in similar fashion while earning a yellow congratulated for taking one for the team. Added to my concern are those outright fouls on Arsenal players moss simply waved off. That arm in the face of Theo being the most egregious. The man is either crooked or incompetent. The PGMOL, from our experience, is both.
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George: I will recheck but on the first look and on replays it was a trip sliding in. If it was a kick around the knees I will be the 1st to recant.
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That vid from Eduardo shows Xhaka tripped him reaching in from from a distance, not sliding in. We see that called a yellow almost every week. Come on guys. A red s unprecedented.
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Is it true that Willie Young tweeted Xhaka ” nice one son, it always works a treat!” ? Jokes aside, those fouls are a load of pants though,notice how Swansea always have confidence against us?
Could have hit six today—or more!
Happy birthday Mesut!
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The positive, if they are now handing out reds for that….and being evenhanded in doing so, we will be facing a team of about two by halftime when we play Spurs
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Utterly ludicrous red. Be amazed if anyone can recall a sending off like it in prem history. Thousands of fouls just like it have never seen red.
Bad enough in its own right, but when you start comparing it to dangerous fouls like Carrol’s on Kos or Cahill on Sanchez ( or back from the days Utd were allowed carte blanche to smash Reyes), it’s a sickener.
Moss was outrageously bad against Saints last year and sounds like he gave it his all to fuck us again today. Dodgy twat.
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That miscreant Owen Hargreaves indeed spoke of a brilliant foul which was certainly no worse than Granits in the West Ham game. West Ham are the darlings of BT still. Clear penalty for shirt pulling on Zaha not given, everyone backed up Atlinshit. The game is as bent as a nine bob note. Disgusting
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