This post is from Kelly, I have stolen it from the comments section and without permission I’m publishing it as a blog. Because its bloody perfect
I am so fucking sick of Aaron getting blamed for every goddamned thing that goes wrong with this team. No one gets as much stick as he does. Not Giroud, not Theo, not anybody. Certainly not Alexis or Mesut. For the last two seasons now, he’s done nothing but plug holes. People bitch about him saying he doesn’t like playing on the right. Well excuse him for wanting to play where he feels like he does his best. Such a horrible trait to want to do the thing in your job that you feel you have the most success at. And what does he get when he does play outside central midfield? Support? Encouragement? Thanks for doing your level best at a job you’re not particularly comfortable in? Hell no. He gets blame and grief and called shit and identified as the “what’s wrong” every goddamned time.
And let’s talk about yesterday. The first 90 minutes he’s played in the league, and only the 2nd 90 minutes he’s played at all since fucking July. And he gets to play it wide left; a position he hasn’t occupied since I can’t remember when. Because Aaron can do it. Do you stick Coquelin out there? Elneny? No. Aaron is always the choice. Because he’s smart enough and he’s good enough and he’s versatile enough, and he’s willing (or at least he’ll give it everything he has, even if he doesn’t really want to do it). Everyone acknowledges that it takes time to build up match fitness. But I don’t think people always remember that it takes time to get your brain back up to match speed as well. Try doing that while not relying on your instincts to guide you while you play in your preferred position, but instead while looking at the game from a perspective you haven’t seen in a really long time. And here, Aaron, help Nacho deal with Valencia too while you’re at it. And also, score, you know, or else everyone will say you’re shit.
I’m really happy that Olivier does well when he comes on as a sub. I love it for him, and I love when he scores and gets to throw it in the face of people who doubt him. But he always, ALWAYS, gets to do that from the position of striker – his preferred position where he is comfortable and where his instincts take over. Aaron never gets that opportunity anymore. I can’t imagine how disappointed he must have been to come back from the Euros having accomplished everything he wanted to, and more, only to get injured and then left behind as the train pulled out of the station and the team gelled without him in it. That’s football, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.
To the point about the reason he gets full on attack mode: I think the WOB hate him( but not just because of the FA Cup,scoring the winner derailed their campane big time), it’s because to them, he is the lightning rod Wenger player. No matter what people say, Arsene trusts him, and he plays him whenever he can, and they hate Aaron for that. I don’t know what they will do for a lightning rod if he leaves before Arsene does. Which he very well may do. And if he does, I won’t blame him one bit.
And before someone accuses me of blaming Arsene, I’m not. Arsene does what is best for the team – that is what he has to do. He believes in Aaron, I know that he does. But if Aaron cannot thrive in the structure of this team, then I don’t think he should be expected to be subservient to the needs of the team forever. He has the right to think about himself as he comes into the prime of his career. I just hope Arsene finds a way, because it would be a damned shame to lose him now.
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Newsnow didn’t pick this up because of the swearing. So fuck them.
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Ah Kelly you articulate what many of us think. Why isn’t Aaron allowed time to recover from yet another injury? Especially when he and Arsene have proved in the past that sticking with him works. He gets a run of games his confidence and touch return and bang! Best in the league.
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“The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gather together to greet the storm
Cos’ Aaron belongs to me”
In time with recent geopolitical events a little toon to lighten our step along the march to world domination.
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“The stag in the forest runs free”
Aye, but for a set of injuries that would limit any athlete.
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no Ramsey in our team and its all
“fucking tippy tappy bullshit, why can’t someone take a shot”
ramsey in the team and its all
“selfish cunt glory hunting and shooting when he should pass it off”
for a section of our fans, some can do no wrong, and some can do no right.
it reminds me of the sort of logic I once seen from one of my GAA youth team managers, he had decided that one particular forward on the u18 team was the star and all our other forwards should give him the ball. A mate of mine was playing full forward, and in first minute of the game I lumped the ball into him and he popped over a point, and our manger shouted at him, no word of a lie – “why didn’t you give it to Alan, he would have scored a point”. – Yeah, exactly. So the next ball I sent in to the full forward, he was in for a goal(a 3 pointer), but he turned back from goal and gave the ball to Alan, who didn’t manager to score even a point. For the remained of the game, the fullforward gave every ball he got to Alan, and he actually never scored at all. But our manager never once asked for this to change, not even at half time, in fact his half time team talk was him telling our other forwards to also pass the ball to Alan. We lost by a point. Our full forward gave up the game.
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Arsenal next 6 games:
PSG (h) – CL
Bournemouth (h) – BPL
Southampton (h) – EFLC
West Ham (a) – BPL
Basel (a) – CL
Stoke (h) – BPL
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Thanks Kelly for a bit of fucking perspective.
Aaron was below the standards we expect of him at old Trafford, as were several over senior players. It was an off day, but we got a point.
He will be much better in coming games.
I am very happy that he plays for us.
I don’t give a flying fig what paper position he plays in, because paper is not a Football pitch. Wenger allows his players the self intelligence to figure out where to play themselves.
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Paddy Power @paddypower Nov 19
Turn up your TV. That sound you can hear is tears dripping sadly down Tyler and Neville’s faces, and onto their microphones.
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well DC you hit on a point there that I sort of disagree with you on
“I don’t give a flying fig what paper position he plays in, because paper is not a Football pitch. Wenger allows his players the self intelligence to figure out where to play themselves”
yes Wenger trusts his players, but I do not for one moment think that the players are not told what their role is in the position they are picked in. Its like this notion that when Ramsey is listed wide right, and he keeps going central, or making runs into the box, that he is somehow ignoring his role as a wide right player. This is a misconception oft repeated by the uber bloggers and malcontents. Just cos Ramsey plays the role differently than theo does, who also plays it differently than ox does, who also plays it differently than Campbell did, just as Iwobi plays wide left differently than Alexis does, in no way means that any of them are just making it up as they go along. I am fully certain that their different ways of playing the role is no different than how Alexis and Giroud play the CF role in different ways.
There is no way in hell that Wenger would keep picking a player in any position if he was not implementing the tactics asked of him by the manager. If a player either can’t do what is asked of him, or if he does not do what is asked of him, he will soon be out of the team, and then out of the club.
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Well I’m not going to disagree with Kelly. Anyone else? …………..
Nope, didn’t think so.
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Eddy @ 10:55 if I could like this post 1000x I would. That’s another of my pet peeves: that when Aaron plays wide he just keeps drifting in and leaving his post, the selfish bastard. If anybody thinks for one minute Arsene Wenger would keep playing him if he ignored the instructions he was given…what bullshit.
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George, I’m sorry if I’ve ruined the reputation of your blog by using such language. That’s what happens when you turn me loose.
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I wouldn’t have it any other way Kelly.
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And yes, Aaron is adding to the team by drifting, not subtracting as the sub-normal would have us believe.
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alabama you could try the old Irish trick of replacing fuck with feck, or fucker with feckers, as feck or feckers are not swear words. to feck something is to throw it, so any fucker can feck right off or even go feck themselves.
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The 12th Man @_The12thMan 11m11 minutes ago
Rotational fouling is the next rule change thats needed. Rugby clocked on to it. Once again football is in the dark ages of sport. Shambles. For those who don’t know….Rotational fouling’s a modern tactic, widely used vs passing teams, where you all take turns to foul but no one person does enough for card. Commonly used against Brazil, notably at the world cup where Columbia took shots until they injured Neymar, France vs Portugal too. The real key is to combine it with diving, so subconsciously the referee feels like he’s giving as many fouls to each team.
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fecking awesome Kelly,
Rambo sure does think he can be effective when playing central box-to-box role, cos hez had his best season there.
And may be Mr Wenger thinks Rambo should play more further forward as hez a goal threat. And he shoots at the slightest sniff of a goal, when others tend to make a pass.
“I knew it would be a bit more of a physical battle so I chose players who have experience and fight,” Wenger told Arsenal.com.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161119/wenger-explains-his-team-selection#Bce6rstlAKSEvolE.99
Key words, EXPERIENCE and FIGHT.
Rambo is one of the few players (world football) out there who never gives up. Keeps trying, never hides.
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we’ve missed cazorla in the middle but i am of the view that ramsey is the best in that position when santi isnt available. iwobi and ox give us more on the wing. but arsene has given the reason he started ramsey, elneny and coq in the game. i expect the line u to change against psg as we play at home. i for one will like to see aaron play the santi role he played ever so well with arteta a couple of seasons ago. olivier should start as well. maybe alexis needs a rest to refresh. if olivier starts then mesut have every chance to record another assist.
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Reads even better second time around. Excellent, passionate stuff.
Now please nobody post anything good to draw me back in today as I spent too long already yesterday talking about mr Ramsey.
I once got carried away watching him play Belgium away, about three years ago, when it struck me he was absolutely dominating the game, classily, roving fulcrum of team, in a way that reminded me of Zidane. Just in case I didn’t make it clear how highly I rate his ability.
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Brilliant stuff.
If he stays fit, Ramsey will soon show his importance and quality, especially if the worst fears over Cazorla are realised.
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Do we have “the worst fears” over Cazorla Mandy ??
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The reason why the likes of those who rate Danny Rose as a footballer hate Aaron Ramsey is simply because Ramsey is a better footballer then they could have ever imagined themselves being and he plays better football then they can imagine. Some Expert said on a podcast that Ramsey can’t play the one touch passing game, which cunningly ignores examples such as the winning goal in the 2014 final. Unreal levels of stupidity. Jealousy makes fools of us all. Simples!
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Rich when reflecting on the Ramsey Arteta axis And looking at stats don’t forget that he found his form and efficiency and essentially regained the form he had before the pgMOB attempted to “Kevin Davis”* his career, the season before his goal scoring heroics in a long stint alongside Arteta with the team playing well and controlling many matches: the goals came with his no look finish at the end of that season, the resulting boost in self-belief, a summer of recuperation and re-focusing, and we all saw the rest the following season.
*ever wondered how England lost to Iceland? Look no further then the celebration of the kind of clogging that turned KD from an exciting skilful young player into a clogging lump.
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All I can say whoever provoked Kelly to come from under the covers, where she was safely enconconsed last Saturday, deserves a damn medal. Hell hath no fury than Kelly seeing drivel written about Rambo. And so it should be.
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The thing that blew everyone away during that run of form was not the goals, though we all enjoyed that, it was the tackling, the passing, generally playing like a world class all round midfielder.
And as in the Cricket the all rounders are a rare and precious breed sometimes misunderstood by those who should know better: the England cricket team had an awful decade or longer where they underrated or undervalued allrounders even when they had a world class all rounder in their team (Alec Stewart) but only when they made better use of such rare talents, or such talents found their fitness (Flintoff!) did they form a truly top class team.
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By the way, I just finished a piece for PA which is now in the warm embrace of George and Andrew. That will be the last of my ramblings for at least 2 weeks as I will be travelling. But I will be active making Comments in between my grandkids.
Duty calls.
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Fins: An allrounder like Gary Sobers even. I know the young ones have forgotten him but for 20 years this West Indian held the world record for top run-scorer (365 runs), had 235 test wickets and was a top, top fielder. By the way he bowled everything; medium pace and spin. One of the few exponents of the chinaman (for non cricketers it is the ability of the left hander to spin the ball contrary to the normal left hand trajectory and at the top-level the spin of the ball is disguised at delivery.) Yup, Aaron Ramsey reminds me of Gary Sobers.
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Fins and Shtta , I like it .
Mesut is our Barry Richard
Alexis is our Dennis Lilly
And Rambo is our Sobers
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We are dating ourselves George. Lol.
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What a treat this weekend has been, from Stew’s opening salvos, to Andy’s generous review and then to cap it off this rousing defence from the PMA. Not to mention (so I will) the brilliant comments from one and all.
I really didn’t enjoy the game – felt sick throughout (caused, I think, by failure to breathe) but felt we were doing well apart from the third quarter, when we seemed to lose whatever grip we had on the midfield. I had expected Aaron Ramsey to start, but thought on the right rather than left, and Id felt he might well play Elneny too, as it seemed to me that in these top of the table clashes (and despite current league position, lets not kid ourselves that Man Utd aren’t a top team) there is an intensity and vigour about the game that simply doesn’t happen in most matches. It didn’t surprise me that Xhaka didn’t start, as I think he’d have been a red card waiting to happen in such a contest. His time will come, but it will be a while before he has picked up the pace and intensity of this league – once he has I think we will enjoy him.
It has been a funny old start for United, and I have enjoyed the discomfiture of them and their manager. I felt before the season started that there might be too many big egos to be accommodated and I think this might still prove to be the case. But momentarily leaving special agents to one side Pogba has it within him to be a fine player (and I thought he was excellent on Saturday), Mata is a joy, and Rooney made a difference when he came on too. They could easily put together a sequence of results that would see them challenging, and any discussion of how we played ought to take into consideration that they were at home, and that it wasn’t very long ago when they were widely tipped as League winners.
Not losing had to be the priority, and I think the draw leaves us well placed now. There is a run of League games that might see us back to winning ways, and most importantly Aaron Ramsey will have come on hugely from this particular outing in which I felt he played increasingly securely. Not at his best, to be sure, but getting there, and it will be his zest, skill and courage that will make a lot of difference over the winter months. I have read a lot recently about different types of midfielder, how one is a this and the other a that, and it seems to me that a lot of the labelling is down to the labelers own preferences as to what constitutes an ideal player.
Much has been made of November, and how it derails us (more often than not due to injury) but I think it also signals the start of the real guts of the season. The next 15 or so matches will see games come thick and fast, and often played in hard weather too. All of our different players will have a time to play their part, either from the start or as subs (and what a magnificent effort from Oxlade) and I sense that Arsene is right when he talks abut something interesting being present in this squad. I wonder if at the start of the season he draws up a plan where he expects certain players to thrive in the very different sections of the season, and plans his selection and training accordingly, in much the same way that a racehorse trainer would do? Or maybe he just jots down the names of those fit on the back of a fag packet. I would love to know, know I never will until perhaps he writes his life story.
Back to Saturday, Alexis was probably exhausted, and it was perhaps physical tiredness that caused him to lose focus as the game went on and play like he wanted to be a ball hog in a school playground. He is better than that and will prove it again, as will the languidly frustrating Ozil. It is ridiculous to say he goes missing in big games, but not far off the mark to suggest that once in a while he plays at a mortal level, especially if denied space to play and runners to find. And last, but very much not least, what a towering header from Giroud – c’est magnifique etc. Again, I can’t help but feel that if the tables had been turned and it has been Ibramovic scored that goal to gain a point he would have been held up as the striker to end all strikers. And I daren’t even think of the media frenzy should Jose have substituted his full back for a winger to deliver the telling and decisive ball.
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Sniper @clockendsniper 44m44 minutes ago
“Just because I played for Arsenal it doesn’t mean I support them, I wanted Mourinho to beat Wenger”
No prizes for guessing who said that.
Now my initial reaction was that Paul Merson said it, but having seen others bring up Stewart Robson I’m no longer sure
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by the way Merson is a chelsea fan, and Robson is a west ham fan
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ah it was robson who said it. It still grates with me that he actually had a job on Arsenal TV when we had a channel. He was always more suited to ArsenalFanTv, what with his total rabid hate for Arsenal and Wenger
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even utd and chelsea fans know what DT is
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I think Ramsey played three games so far this season? Against the fools he started from the middle, against spuds he came on in the middle, and against manure when we needed a goal he was moved into the middle. With cazorla out can’t see why he won’t get even more game time there.
The one big positive I’ll take from the game against manure is how all our players put their body into it. I didn’t see anyone backing away in 50/50 situations. It was really tough game so in the end I think the managers decisions were justified. If it was borinho taking a point at Emirates the way we did, the plundits and the wobs would lose themselves in the deep brown shit hole that constitutes the sully one. So fuck them and the crap they wade in, we got the point we wanted.
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161121/match-video-tottenham-v-arsenal-u23s?
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Eddy; I responded to that tweet by @clockendsniper and like you I thought it was Merson. I had a similar reaction as yours upon learning it was Robson. What pisses me off is how he used his position to undermine Wenger and Project Youth. Imagine having no money to buy established stars and having to rely on Cesc, Nasri, Adebayor, Eboue, Denilson and Song yet an in-house commentator uses every chance to bad mouth the manager. I can’t get my head around the fact he was allowed to spit his bile for so long.
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You are of course 100% correct Kelly many of our fans ( because it’s difficult to call them supporters) don’t realise the work he puts in or the sacrifice he makes for the team. However Ray Parlour was in the same situation never played in his favoured CM position by GG, Rioch, Arsene or for that matter any of the caretaker managers but he still managed to be very successful in his adopted position and is now classed as a legend. Obviously we should expect the same for Aaron.
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shotta, what amazes me about Robson at Arsenal TV was that it took complaints from fan groups and individuals for him to get sacked.
ian, now a days anyone who ever played for a club is described as a club legend, and even in the grander scheme of things re legends, I’m sure when Ramsey retires he will be viewed as a club legend.
I do wonder how many of our best players down the years would have coped if they had to put up with the non stop uber bloggers, twatteratti etc, when they were starting out, or when going through a rough patch. Imagine a 17 year old CB making his debut at home to Sunderland, big mistake leading to the winning goal for Sunderland, imagine the same guy a few years later being targetted by the press and labeled a donkey, how would the malcontents attack him, would he be allowed to recover and become our youngest captain, title winning captain, one club man. Isn’t it telling Tony Adams that he did not have the scrutiny our players now get. I could list many similar type of scenarios, not least Ray Parlour, gave away a penalty on his debut that lost us the game at Anfield
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anyone see the quotes from Elneny where he said that his move to Arsenal came about after he impressed Arsenal scouts who were watching Basel central defender Fabian Schar, and that Schar was that close to joining Arsenal in summer 2015 that the other Basel players had even said their goodbyes and wished him good luck at AFC.
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Giroud’s goal on saturday was his 85th for AFC, and his 24th headed goal.
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on Wednesday our u19’s play PSG u19’s in the YCL, the game kicks off at 1pm, and is live on UEFA TV.
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Fins
Glad you cleared it up for me. Not a case of forgetting on my part, more that my memory is not what I’d like it to be football wise -much missing, much blurred together.
I did think maybe Ramsey and Arteta had played together in the season before the one i looked at, but had some rogue memory of him playing wide (City?) and took a bit of a punt.
Must have been those two with Cazorla in front of them, then. I’d say most of my points still have validity if that was the case, as Santi no doubt played that role quite differently to Ozil.
That was the year we briefly got to see Arteta,Diaby and Cazorla in the middle. Now that was a dream combination. Wish I had a video of Diaby at Liverpool, as that game did justice to his talents and was one of the best midfield performances I ever saw.
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journos complaining that arsenal fans sang to jose, “you’re not special, you’re a cunt”, but the same journos have no complaint about fans who call wenger a peado
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reports today that Hector Bellerin has agreed a new £100K a week deal with Arsenal. an amazing 6 and half years of an extension keeping him here till 2023
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if the bellerin deal is true, it would mean we are paying our right back double what spurs pay harry kane. can anyone see them being able to hang on to him.
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reports suggest Bellerin, Ozil, Koscielny and Alexis are all close to signing new deals. What does Ivan Gazidis do.
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anyone else concerned with the performances of Monreal this season, for me he is no where near the levels he played at last season, I would not mind seeing Gibbs starting v PSG on Wednesday.
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I’ve been impressed with Nacho – he has had a few serious tests and come through well. He has not been much helped by the almost game by game change of the player in front of him that has ruled out building up an understanding of each other’s job and fitting together better.
The Spanish coach and I on the same page on Nacho.
Can’t say I’ve noticed Gibbs doing much to improve on what Nacho has contributed.
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monreal has had iwobi start in front of him in 10 of his 13 games. He is back in the Spanish squad due to jordi alba getting injured.
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