I was listening to BBC Somerset on the car radio yesterday. Not proud of it, obviously, but Radio 4 had decided to lead with Nigel Farage and I didn’t want him in the Hyundai with me so had switched channels in haste. They were interviewing some poor beleaguered soul from the Environment Agency or National Rivers Authority (an NRA I think we could all get behind) as people of my generation know and think of it. The subject was flooding. It’s a popular pastime in parts of Somerset, most notably on flood plains where rivers have expanded from time immemorial regardless of whether someone had built a house there or not.
The interview was interrupted by an enraged farmer and one could almost see the ruddy cheeked apoplectic countenance as he yelled inarticulate hatred towards the guy who had just assured him there was no danger of his land being inundated. ‘Hold fire on that ark Jethro’, I shouted. When the interviewer took aside the horny handed son of the sod and asked to see what was sufficiently bothersome that he would so berate a poor civil servant he had to admit there was actually no flood water to be seen and the moisture levels had in fact dropped.
“Don’t you think you were being a little hasty, unfair perhaps, had no grounds to yell?” these were perhaps obvious questions. “Yeah well maybe – but I got a right to an I?” came back the farmer with the kind of snappy repartee which has earned my home county a well deserved reputation for breeding great thinkers.
I can’t help feeling that farmer summed up much that is awry in our society and many of those who purport, at least, to support Arsenal. If they moan and yell abuse and complain with no obvious rhyme, reason or rationale, they almost certainly feel they are doing so because they have a right to. Now, no one wants to live in a society where one cannot complain, of course not, that system has been tried in many countries and has always been found wanting by its citizens. But the way our players and manager get treated just so these people can exercise their ‘rights’ is shocking.
As we ponder the senseless scapegoating of one of the best players the club has ever had, one of the other whipping boys of the Arsenal online family has seen his stock actually rise this week. Buoyed up by his decisive intervention at Old Trafford, Olivier Giroud was, at least at one stage, leading a poll of Arsenal Twitter followers as to who ought to open the batting against PSG this evening.
Part of me wants to rejoice that at long long last one of my favourite players is receiving the recognition he deserves. However a much bigger part of me dismisses such fair weather friendery for the fickle, false and febrile baloney it surely is. In fact suddenly liking a player for doing what he has always done just because he saved you getting a roasting from your Man United supporting pals in whichever asylum you are confined is not supporting at all. Not in my book.
Larry deserved everyone’s backing from day one and needed it most when things were not going his way. Moaning about Aaron while simultaneously clamouring for our Gallic heartthrob to lead the line again is a symptom of an unbalanced mind not of a person coming to their senses. It is the very act of scapegoating players, of leaping on bandwagons of disrespect and abuse the moment one rolls past you, that is the problem.
You can’t chop and change from game to game and expect things to always go well. Football doesn’t work like that. Are we supposed to think Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a hero now because of one cross, just like he should never have played for us again after a couple of miss hit passes in his previous game?
Thank goodness we have a manager able to withstand such capricious whimsy when it comes to team selection. Of course if a player is in form he deserves a run in the team. He also, I would argue, deserves to maintain his place if that form tails off a little. Surely his morale would only be improved by such a show of faith from his manager. It wouldn’t kill us perhaps as supporters to show a similar faith in the people we claim to be supporting.
I know I’m encroaching heavily on Kelly’s piece from Sunday evening but we here at Positively Arsenal are often motivated by similar emotions and really all I’m doing is extending her defence of Aaron to all of our players. We should be disappointed for them and not in them when things don’t go well, we should have their back and not get on their backs when they are struggling and above all we should stop, as Shotta pointed out, being such cry babies and realise that we have little right to celebrate the good times if we weren’t there for the team during the bad times.
Right, that’s better, now lets have a look at tonight’s match. Paris St Germain are on a fine run at present. Unbeaten in five they’ve won their previous four only conceding once in those five games. Like Arsenal they’ve amassed an impressive ten points in a Champion’s League group which shows an emphatic gap between the top two teams and the also rans. Billed as a decider to see who tops the group tonight’s match won’t necessarily be all that decisive as both sides have another game to play on December 6th.
It is hard to say if finishing first will guarantee an easier fixture in the next round with this year’s competition throwing up some curious results. Overwhelming favourites to lift the trophy this season and everybody’s most cherished team, Spurs, won’t even be seeing the knockout stages. It’s a funny old game.
It’s not often Arsenal receive any help from officials but someone at the Home Office must like us as Serge Aurier has been red carded by the visa panel without a ball being kicked. Whether his absence will have as big an impact as our injury list remains to be seen. Hopefully we’ll have a good match to entertain the faithful and this time it’d be rather nice not to gift them a 1 – 0 head start.
Anyway I’ve got to go put on my wig and false beard in the hope I’m not recognised by an angry Spurs supporting farmer. Enjoy the occasion if you’re lucky enough to be there. If not don’t forget to get on the internet and slag off our useless players at every opportunity, after all, you’ve got every right to do so haven’t you?
Positively Arsenal 
stew we may not have been shite, but we did not play very well in that half, no shots at all till the penalty tells a story. We have looked like we could cause them problems, but then a bad pass or a poor decision and the move was gone. The pressing for the penalty was the first time we really went as a group to close them down, too many times before that it was one or two pressing, or token pressing.
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Happened right in front of me and looked ok – no1 son says zero contact – comments ?
Also said Cavani should have got a red
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Not impressed with PSG – they are there for the taking
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Sigh
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Andy yes a straight red for violent conduct fro Cavani no doubt. and I thought contact but the slo mo blurred it somewhat.
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that was a fine psg freekick, it hit the bar with ospina rooted to the ground
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a good move by afc and after a bit of ping ball, the ball goes in off veratti from another psg players attempted clearance 2-1 to the arsenal,
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psg now hanging on
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might be time to take off coquelin, it was clear there that he could not make a tackle on that psg breakaway
cavani after doing an outrageous dive, thankfully ref did not buy it, but he should have been booked for it.
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psg have stepped it up
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ospina lets ball go out thinking it was a goal kick and its a psg corner.
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Hatem Ben Arfa on for PSG
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This is fun
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Alexis with two Arsenal players to aim for picks out the PSG defender with ease. Then runs into the ref!
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jenkinson with a vital clearance at the back post
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Hasn’t Carl done well after being out for so long?
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free header at a corner, and iwobi diverts it past ospina, 2-2, psg would go top if it stays like this.
iwobi taken off, xhaka on
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cavani fluffs a one on one with ospina
walcott on for coquelin
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Larry did something to Cavani with that little squeeze. He’s lost his mojo
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oxlade-chamberlain on for jenkinson
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cavani misses again
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We have all our fit centre forwards on at once!! This is great.
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No one wants to lose this now.
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3 minutes of stoppage time to be played, need a winner here
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Loving Ox as an attacking fullback. Arsene is a fucking genius.
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FT: 2-2
advantage PSG, top spot no longer in our own hands. November has seen us with one win and 3 draws so far, 2 games left to play in this month.
must say on tonights game the player who disappointed me was Ozil, never really got into the game enough.
psg probably the better team overall, we had them on the rocks for about ten minutes after we took the lead, but they then upped it again.
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I’m completely bewildered by what everyone is saying about the group. We wouldn’t have been guaranteed top spot with a win because both teams still have a game to play. As it stands we’re top on goal difference. Or have I missed something? How is it not in our hands? Surely PSG are relying on us winning the last game by less than they win theirs.
Please explain how the maths works because I must be missing something here.
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Ramsey was good, probably only bettered by Koscielny.
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How the fuck are we second on equal points with better GD???? Seriously help me.
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STEWW HEAD TO HEAD… they scored more away goals
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What does that mean? How does that affect the fact that we have scored more and have a better difference???
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what was it that was said on here only a couple of days ago about Ramsey getting unfair treatment from arsenal fans, well nothing ever changes.
The 12th Man @_The12thMan 9m9 minutes ago
Terrible result, was there for the taking, 100% Wenger’s fault. Ramsey was dreadful all game, why didn’t Xhaka (who was fresh) play?
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psg 1-1 arsenal
arsenal 2-2 psg
psg win head to head, they equal our result in last group game and they top the group. they are at home to ludogerats and we are away to basel.
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as things stand
John Cooney AFC @johncooney1 5m5 minutes ago
Arsenal could face
Dortmund
Monaco
Barcelona
Juventus
Athletico Madrid
Napoli?
Avoiding
Real Madrid
Bayern
NOT ALL BAD NEWS
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Since when has that had any bearing on a football tournament? Has that head to head nonsense always been there and I just never knew? How utterly weird that the side who scores more and has a better goal difference isn’t automatically placed higher. What next? They decide with a panel of judges which team has the best haircuts? It’s bollocks.
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so Leicester city top their group
man city will finish second in their group
arsenal likely to finish second in their group – still a chance of getting top
spurs are out
guess which team will get the most criticism from the media.
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stew its been there for a long time, and the thinking of it is that its fairer cos a team out of it with a game or two to go could just roll over and concede a lot of goals, which would distort the actual group. This might actually be uefa’s way of saying lesser clubs could be bought off by a big club to let them win by 5, 6, 7 etc if they needed it. so head to head has been the rule for a long time, its the same at World Cups, Euros, Copa America, ACN.
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Mustafi has not lost an arsenal game yet, and Kos has not lost a game since we got knocked out v barca in last years cl.
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giroud so far this season 2+8 games, 5 goals
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Liam Brady says it was a terrible goal we gave away for the 2-2, he says iwobi should have got out of the way and let ospina save it, that once their was no pace on the header he should have known the keeper would get it.
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#MÖ11 @FootyHipstar 40m40 minutes ago
Aaron Ramsey tonight.
87% pass completion.
3 take-ons
12 ball recoveries
6 tackles
2 interceptions
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I only saw the second half which I much enjoyed. I thought that man for man (with the exception of Ozil) they were just a fraction better than us technically. Not by much but just enough to control things when they wanted. Might we have won? Of course – and so might they. Did we play badly? No. And that is where I think the team is right now. Just a fraction off the very highest class, capable at times of sublimity , but also sufficiently vulnerable to make the whole business of supporting them agonisingly worthwhile.
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Amazingly the Ramsey bashing is still in full flow, “get of my land” no doubt.
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Extraordinary example of woberry tonight – the bloke next to me stormed out in disgust after our second goal. I shall reveal more in due course.
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you will all love this, Graham Poll is having a go at Ramsey for Cavani hitting him, claiming our man made a big deal of it, basically claiming ramsey cheated in an attempt to get cavani sent off. Poll was head boy of the anti arsenal pgmol, and now he is retired he is still spouting their agenda.
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did you know that arsenal on an 18 game unbeaten run are a shambles/useless/terrible or any other negative you can think of.
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Sir Jenkinson @theEpicGooner 2h2 hours ago
In last 3 games in all competitions, Arsenal have scored only 4 goals.
Own Goal : 2
Giroud : 2
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seemingly arsenal were trying to get xhaka on for iwobi for 5 minutes but no break in play, then psg won a corner and afc decided not to make the change till after the corner, iwobi scores og at the corner. Now is that bad luck, or Wenger’s fault. I know which the uber bloggers will say it is, especially those that are going on the track that we needed to make subs earlier as players were tired.
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A so so performance, a bit stilted first half more cohesive second half. Another draw, but still undefeated. With so many players finding their way back to form, I thought it wasn’t bad. No one really hit the heights, but no one was abject either. Jenks had some good moments, Gibbs was okay given how little he has played recently. I don’t know if it was the changes at the back, but Mustafi’s passing was really off first half when he is usually solid and consistent playing out from the back. It seemed to infect Kos, who was not as reliable as we have come to expect. Thank goodness for Cavani’s wayward finishing and solid goalkeeping by our Dave to keep us in it. I thought Aaron showed some good signs of getting back to form. His tackling and covering of the defence was there and I’m sure the more creative side will follow. There’s one more game to go for both of us, so let’s see where that takes us. I don’t think finishing first is such a guarantee for the knockout round with the pontential for some top teams to finish 2nd in their groups. Whatever happens, we’ll just have to deal with it.
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Still not as fluent as they can be, but still not losing.
Not sure if TV portrayed how well organised they were for much of the game, how well they closed down, and how dangerous some of their players are in attack….loose balls proved extremely dangerous with this lot.
They are a very rich and very good team, in a much less competitive league, with some real top class players. Yet, we have not lost to them.
Yes, our players made a couple of mistakes, but let’s not underestimate what they were up against, believe me, they are top seeds in the group and no mugs.
The fluidity will come back as will the wins.
We will do very well to top this group now, not impossible…..but I fear we all have a reasonable idea who we will draw next. But that’s for another day, let’s give the boys a bit of credit, a tricky group, but qualified yet again, and could yet spring a surprise, who knows.
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