The international break came at rather a good time for me. In one way at least. Not in a ‘let’s all sit down and enjoy some great football kind of way’ – chance would be a fine thing. I refer more to my Quixotic attempt to add a couple of thousand words each day to a book which history tells us is unlikely ever to be a) read or b) finished.
By removing my blogging duties from the equation I was able to shine upon the perils and scrapes of Clifton Malreward and his double life the full beacon of my concentration and creativity. However poor CM and his long suffering partner, the equally improbably named Evelyn Yatt, must, for this morning at least, take a back seat. A quick glance at my agenda informs us that Arsenal are back on the menu. Not only that but it’s Arsenal versus Manchester United, performing at the ground where we have tasted the occasional sweet triumph and far too many sickly unjust desserts.
A good deal has been happening since last we met. I’ve been passed sufficiently fit by the veterinary to hand in my notice to the amalgamated union of slackers and layabouts and get out there and rejoin the ranks of the Great British workforce in their honourable devotion to toil. I shall bend my back, tense my thighs and lend my not inconsiderable weight to the big shove as we all endeavour to keep the economy on the rails while it passes through the shadow of the valley of Brexit.
Despite all this you may rest assured that from an Arsenal perspective I have not been idle. Since creating my last pre-match preview I have in fact been actively involved in the corruption of a minor. Perhaps I should explain. My brother in law and his life partner have three children, one of whom having achieved the age of nine has decided to like football. The BIL and his LP are neither one of them interested in the beautiful game and so the call went out. Could he sit with me and watch a match? I of course obliged and so his first ever Arsenal game, albeit on the television, was the North London derby. A lifetime of such disappointing outcomes awaits him, but I sincerely hope the pill will be liberally sprinkled with the sugar of one or two improbable and memorable victories.
Wouldn’t it be nice if he started with one of those today? Victory over Man United is about as good as it gets for me. While Chelsea have risen up the hate list and I know some of you have a hard time warming to Spurs or Liverpool it has always been the red half of Manchester that has most gotten my goat. I suppose if you wanted to go back to when I was where my nephew is today, wet behind the ears and full of blind optimism, it was Revie’s Leeds that curdled the milk in my cup of human kindness. In recent years however, the evil spawn of the dark one that fester in Old Trafford have been head and shoulders above all other demonic forces.
The marriage made in the deepest circle of hell when they appointed the Graceless One as their manager has added unnecessary bile to an already septic stew. Regardless, it is a bowl from which we need to sip at least twice this season. So there really is nothing for it but to hold the nose and take our medicine.
The match comes at one of those sticky moments in the calendar when the storm clouds of ill fortune appear to be gathering. Our winning momentum was checked by a team who needed beating and beating soundly. A win against an unbeaten upstart rival would have sent us all into the international void with a song on our lips. Instead, whipped up by the talk of austere Novembers past, our fan base enters the latter half of this bleak and wintry time casting nervous glances all around and dreading an early end to all their hopes. The thought that it could be the Classless One and his minions who inflict further pain is too insufferable to contemplate and so I prefer not to do so.
The injury blight has of course begun to bite as we all guessed it would. Pictures of Alexis with ice packs pressed to his thigh were gleefully beamed around the globe and the news of Hector being out for at least a month manages to stand out even in a year when unwelcome news is almost commonplace. I am not exaggerating when I say that had you asked me to choose the players I would least like to add to our roster of wounded in action, those two would have headed my list.
Both have been in sparkling form and neither has a ready made replacement such is the unique nature of their talents. I don’t decry Theo or Olivier nor Jenks or Debuchy. Assuming Debuchy is still with us. I confess I don’t know where he is these days, but it’s an impossible ask to expect anyone to replace players who are performing at the very top of their games. It is also a testament to young Hector that he has climbed so rapidly given his relatively recent inclusion in the first eleven.
We shall continue to miss Santi, another player who lifts us from the very good into the sublime, and Lucas’ gradual acclimatisation to Premier League football was cruelly curtailed at precisely the wrong time. It is surely too early to rely on Aron who is only just back from injury and so we really need to see a big performance from Granit Xhaka. He’s been around long enough now, has the proverbial games under his belt. Given his position on the pitch he needs to exert a real influence on the game, to dictate, as it were, that fabled tempo of which we hear so much.
Of course we have a big squad and aren’t the only side trying to regroup after the unwelcome distraction of the dreadful internationals. Maybe a trip up to Manchester is precisely the stimulus the players need to get back to winning ways. A match against apparently weaker opposition would have ticked another banana skin box. The staff and players will know how big a game this will be for our opponents. Their manager has a borderline psychotic obsession with Arsène and if he motivates them for just one game this season, today will be that game.
I expect them to come at us early on much as they did against Liverpool. If we’re still in it by half time then their naturally defensive instincts may see us having to break down the massed ranks. This would be a familiar scenario. A draw against one of the top sides is no disgrace for them. Having dropped two points in our last game the pressure is all on us to make amends.
I don’t know if my nephew will be coming down to watch the game. I’m not sure if seeing his uncle banging his head on the coffee table and whimpering is a good image for an impressionable lad. He already learned some choice new vocabulary while watching the game against Spurs. Let’s hope, if he does decide to risk it, that this time he gets to see an old man dance and sing. After all football is supposed to be all about entertainment isn’t it?
Positively Arsenal 
Top work Maestro and should that novel get finished I hope you’ll make it available. Good luck to one and all today.
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What a superb Post using gripping prose, Steww.
As always your musings are meaty and need to be carefully digested to enjoy the full flavour and that is well worth doing.
As an extra, I enjoyed the little bit of nuanced info that you occasionally slip in to your work, which, a bit like the grain of sand that creates an oyster pearl, subliminally tickled the id and needed scratching.
So, what was it that caught my attention this time, and it was simply an innocent scene setting explanation of relationships that on the face of it was perfectly straightforward ….. but hold your horses I told myself ….. you said “My brother in law and his life partner have three children” a perfectly understandable statement of familial context, so what triggered my itch?
Well, with the deftest sleight of hand you reversed the way many lesser mortals might describe it as — “My sister and her life partner have three children”.
It does not call for an explanation, but in a riveting article it sewed an interesting tidbit of information that your discerning readers can chew on.
Lovely. Well done Steww. lol
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I do not intend to repeat an apology I made today for my intemperate language in describing the insufferable Mourhino.
But for any who missed it and were offended, or could be assed, the apology is at the end of the previous Post.
Mea culpa. (lol)
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Thanks both – Henry – your comments are as inspired as any post. Sign him up George.
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Debuchy played in the under 23s last night. and scored.
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great work Steww, Debuchy played and scored in the U23s win against the spuds yesterday so although he wont be involved today he is on his way back
COYG
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Ah I didn’t know about that, not paid any attention to anything football related until just now.
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A date with Mourinho’s Utd. It’s like having an appointment to have a painful toothache addressed, at a dentists surgery where a succession of dentists have failed you miserably and agonisingly in the past.
But today could be the one,right? Today could be the day you leave there with problem solved and feeling high on life and good health.
* whir of dentist drill
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Good morning stew. Very good.
As PG noted Debuchy playedyesterday so we can assume he’s not in the equation today.
So it’s coperal Jenkinson or another defensive option.
We shall know soon.
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The best homonyn you’ve found Stew…trust you feel full of goodness and health later. If your book contains half the exquisite prose of your blog. it will be a best seller.
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Looks like the PA Massive is taking a while to wake from the international hibernation.
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Thanks gf60 – I only write in the way others go to the gym. I have no pretensions to being published any more than they imagine running in the Olympics. It’s just a sort of exercise to see if I can do it.
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Just heard the nephew is coming round. Hope he likes Russian commentary. Hope he is a better good luck charm than he’s been so far as well.
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Good morning Stew – top notch nibwork
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Well done Steww. This will be a tricky game especially without our most influential player, Santi Cazorla. Mourinho sets up his teams to best frustrate front-footed teams like ours. If we have improved over the past 3 years, as the data suggests, then we stand a reasonable chance. It could go either way.
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Well, Steww I’m at Gate 7 at Milan, Malpensa airport waiting for a flight to Munich and then on to ………Manchester……I hope to land in a happy place at around 5.30pm.
Another enjoyable read, thanks
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Arsenal team: Cech, Jenkinson, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott, Alexis
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Giroud, Iwobi, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xhaka
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/20161119/team-news-alexis-starts-at-old-trafford#EOFCGGtGHgbMkkv2.99
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So. I call for a big game from Xhaka and he’s not even starting! Mugs game this prediction lark
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different rules for arsenal players than man utd players, one eyed reffing once again
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Darmain should be off twice over here, but of course the ref will give him another final warning,
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did Monreal get away with one, or was that a dive
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Miguel Delaney @MiguelDelaney 2m2 minutes ago
Arsenal’s chant has now evolved from “Fuck off Mourinho” to “You’re not special, you’re a cunt”
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HT: 0-0
its been a poor quality game. Arsenal seem nervous, and are playing well within themselves. a lot of our moves have broken down at alexis
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Spent much of that half explaining the offside rule to my nephew.
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So far, so good PA. The minimum goal is not to lose this match. Keep our ppg on course. As for poor Arsenal-twitter. Expecting us to go to United and roll all over them. Last time I checked they have the most expensive squad in the PL.
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i wont get to see the second half, will have to do with bbc radio 5 commentary
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Superb again, Steww.
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highlight of the first half, Ramsey laughing at jose when utd did not get a penalty for valencia’s dive.
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Thanks Ranty. A lot of people will claim they don’t write for the praise but that’s bollocks. It’s the only reason I do it.
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jeez, the 13th time in the last 25 bpl games at OT its been 0-0 at half time
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No Steww, I’d read your piece much earlier and enjoyed it like it was ‘the first time’. The thought of having a youngster watching with you – and trying to keep calm, not curse – is sooooo amusing.
Brilliant stuff. Explain offside, hahhahaha
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I can live with that result
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Glad to hear that Andy you’re far too young to leave us.
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Defensively sound, nicely set up from that point of view but in general, not at our fluent best, far from it, being a Cazorlaist, maybe to be a bit expected, but well done to the team for keeping on going, and the manager for his inspired substitutions.
Decent enough result at a difficult place to play, and against a manager who will do anything he can to get one over on Wenger.
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WOB harikari on twitter. Arsenal was lucky. Lucky? A team makes its own luck. Keep playing to the end. Unlike Arsenal-twitter who gave up. Oh just fuck right off with your useless luck.
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Games like today confirm what my research revealed as I shared on PA. Without the little magician, Santi Cazorla, we are not the same team. Dropping 2 points in two games. Cant wait for our Bambino to return.
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Jeez, that was a get out of jail card used up.
Very happy to have got a 1-1 out of that game.
Lots of poor midfeild play from Arsenal today.
Blame it on the intl break – players were rusty as feck.
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steww, make sure you tell your nephew we usually produce much better football than in last couple of (admittedly, tough) games.
Definitely not a performance to make you think ‘this is the year’, and I’m mightily relieved to get a point from it.
Jenkinson, who I didn’t want to start, did well. Kos and Mustafi looking good for the most part. Coq/Elneny looking for a time as though they offer good protection to the defence. Overall, though, a worrying performance.
We’ll need to be so much better when the chips are down in big games to achieve the season we want, but my main thing today is sheer relief to be saved from how I’d feel after a duff performance and a loss against those fucks Mou/Utd
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Never ever doubt Giroud.
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The WOB are pissed off…..even better. A true basket of something …..perhaps a bit more rude than Hillarys term.
Think we either need Caz back, or someone needs to find their inner Cazorla.
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Poor supporting performance from me today. I actually muted the TV and pulled the covers over my head after their goal. I had that tightness in my chest that anxiety brings. It’s not been a good 10 days for that. A loss would have brought tears, I’m pretty certain. My fortress is weak at the moment. But, they did it. They did not quit, and the big man delivered. That point feels like a win. And Aaron laughing in Jose’s face after the non-penalty call did make me smile. So I’ll take it. We soldier on.
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great to see the deadwood getting the stars out of trouble again, the wobs must be crying in their sour milkshakes.
I too switched streams and watched without the commentry after we went behind.
Have to say both goals were down to Arsene today, they say managers can do little once the players cross the white line but as Arsene admitted we struggled second half. We were creating nothing upfront, we were losing the midfield and the defence especially Nacho were stuggling to cope. I thought even before manures changes we were struggling and after they got even better, changes needed to be made and Arsene should take responsability for that. Having blamed him for the goal you have to give him credit for the subs once they come on. There’s not many fans who would of put the Ox on at right back so although i’m giving the first goal as an Arsene own goal he defenitely gets credit for scoring up the right end.
Going forward thats two games running where we haven’t come out for the second half so we need to improve in that area, thank god, allah or whoever there’s no more interlulls til march.
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a poor performance, solid enough in defense, battled in midfield, but our attacking 4 were poor, not one of them was anywhere near their best. I agree with a_o_b that changes needed to be made before utd scored, as we were really on the back foot for about ten minutes before the goal. We could not get it to stick up the pitch. So having gone behind, and playing poorly, at a ground we have only won 3 times in BPL era, it must be said the result was great, what is it they say about grinding out a result when playing poorly, and na na nana na Giroud. In the build up to the game we were told by the malcontents that it was vital that Alexis play as Giroud is not good enough, and they also told us that we need to loan out Ox and bring back Joel. So no surprise that they are all going on the “lucky” Arsenal soundbite. it must be maddening for them to see their messiah Jose unable to beat a poorly performing Arsenal team, despite taking the lead.
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we have 3 more games in November, in 3 different competitions, PSG in CL, Bournemouth in BPL and Southampton in EFLC, all at home. 3 wins and November could yet be a great month for us.
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 1h1 hour ago Blackburn, England
People had decided before KO that Ramsey and Jenkinson were at fault. Well I didn’t see Alexis or Ozil doing any better?
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Jenks played ok for his first game back and certainly wasn’t helped by Theo in front who, although is trying to work on his defensive side this season, was struggling the longer the game went on. There was two instances even before the game where Theo was just iddling back and let players go unfortunatly still not learnt from the Evra goal many years ago. Aaron is Aaron and basically wherever he plays he is highly involved and so is likely to make a higher proportion of errors. Personally I would prefer this to someone who just goes missing. Actually it was as a team where we made the most mistakes exactly as Arsene said wwe moved the ball slowly and moved without the ball slowly as well. When I see manure CB’s I thought we would get plaenty of joy as Alexis early header proved but we just tailed away.
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I seen someone blame Ramsey for getting in Alexis’s way, when for me Alexis was coming far too deep and running into areas both Ramsey and Theo were already running into, but of course Alexis is not one of our scapegoats so he is above criticism and as we know both Ramsey and Jenkinson were pre match targets for the malcontents, so of course extra fault is being found with their performance.
by the way we have not lost with Mustafi in the team, and we are also now on a 17 game unbeaten run, and its one loss in something like 23 BPL games, the problem we are having is its 9 draws in those 23.
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Sky Sports Statto @SkySportsStatto 3h3 hours ago
Most PL goals as a substitute for @Arsenal
10 – OLIVIER GIROUD
9 – Nicklas Bendtner
9 – Kanu
#MUFCvAFC #PL
Sky Sports Statto @SkySportsStatto 3h3 hours ago
Man Utd – record v teams currently in the PL’s top 9
P 6
W 0
D 3
L 3
F 3
A 10
Pts 3
#MUFCvAFC #PL #MUFC
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you what, we were piss poor today, but we drew, and I’ve seen us dominate teams and lose, too many times, to not be pleased with a draw at OT after going behind.
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SHOULD UNITED HAVE HAD A PENALTY?
Should Manchester United have had a penalty when Nacho Monreal tangled with Antonio Valencia on Saturday?
Read on for Arsène Wenger’s verdict on that flashpoint and the other big issues from our 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
on the result…
I felt that we had a serious defensive performance but offensively we have played better. We didn’t have our usual style of going forward, we were not sharp enough, not fluent enough and Manchester United blocked us well. They were well organised. In the first half I felt there was room for us to be dangerous and in the first 20 minutes of the second half we didn’t play. Manchester United deservedly took the lead then. They dropped off after and they let us have the ball. We came back, we were resilient and in the end I think we scored a great goal.
on why Arsenal struggled in attack…
I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. Maybe it’s the mental block here because for a while it didn’t go well for us. Was it a bit of fatigue after the international break? I don’t know. Some players came back late on Thursday and we travelled on Friday morning to play on Saturday morning. It’s short but I don’t think it’s an explanation. Manchester United defended very well as well.
on Manchester United’s penalty claim…
I didn’t feel it was a penalty but don’t be surprised by that. Mourinho’s view will be that it was a penalty so don’t be surprised by that.
on Matteo Darmian not being sent off…
That’s the referee’s decision. It was not an easy game to referee because there were a lot of challenges. Overall I thought it was a fair game.
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/20161119/should-united-have-had-a-penalty-?#jk7V8MW1OAcEe4tV.99
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