Firstly allow me to apologise for the late post this morning. You can thank my neighbours who felt it appropriate to detonate explosives at midnight to celebrate one day turning into another. Maybe on June 18th I’ll go smash all the windows in their cars at 3 am. It is after all a special day for me and I like the sound of car alarms. Anyone who complains will get a sarcastic ‘Happy June 18th’ and be accused of being a miserable party pooper.
Anyway I finally calmed the hysterical pets and got back to some sort of fitful sleep many hours later, but then the alarm summoned me to my duty and so here I am. A glance at the Arsenal club website tells me we host Crystal Palace at four o’clock this afternoon. I can only hope our players got a better night’s sleep than I did and that the ‘few flu’ cases Arsène mentioned en passent in his press briefing are not in fact anything quite so serious.
Brushed over in the discussion of injuries this was in fact the most worrying of all. Flu is very different from a nasty cold despite the two often being conflated. I know, I’ve had it and you can barely lift your head from the pillow. A friend once described being so drained of motivation and energy that if you’d told him there was a million pounds outside his bedroom door he would not have bothered crossing the room to check.
I well remember the team being utterly debilitated by a bug prior to a visit to Old Trafford and can only pray we don’t see a recurrence today. Apart from anything else it is the relentless nature of this team, the famous spirit Arsène always praises, which wins so many games. Despite the sneering after the Man City defeat, the ludicrous suggestion that the players didn’t try, or want it enough, the facts are that Arsenal wins more matches in the final five minutes of a contest than any other side.
It is possible that the tactical blanket employed by many of our opponents contributes to this statistic. When prising open two lines of five and an unusually inspired keeper, you have to tease, and press, and cajole them out of shape. You can’t move the ball more quickly forward because you are playing most of the game in an attacking position already. Instead you need to move it sideways, dart forward, step back, try to winkle an opening. This is a game of long, drawn out siege football and usually pays dividends but often takes time. The defenders are sharper, fresher and less likely to lose discipline early in the match.
If we contrive an early goal there is often a flurry of activity, a passage of stormy play to navigate as the opposition strive to get back into the game and we shift gears into control mode. Sometimes we don’t do this as well as we might hope, other times we get a second and the players relax and have fun. It’s not an exact science, it can go either way. Without that breakthrough we end up with an attritional war and for fans that isn’t easy to take.
I watched my nephew wilt as we slowly picked West Brom’s lock last week. I heard his optimism and enthusiasm erode to the point where he would have been happy for me to turn off the match and play some Minesweeper videos on Youtube instead. It made me realise that those awful tweets and forum comments you read when watching this kind of match are actually quite understandable.
For very young children and those with limited cognitive powers it isn’t easy to mask disappointment. After all we all watch for entertainment don’t we? If we aren’t being entertained then we feel let down. If the careful, patient application of pressure doesn’t thrill supporters then it’s inevitable that some will vent their frustration. The only reason we don’t do that here isn’t because we’re necessarily any more intelligent or insightful than other people it’s because we try harder.
We want this to be a haven of positive encouragement and mutual support not just another place where people can show off their waspish, sniping skills. We could also gain something by understanding those who feel less of an urge to mask their exasperation. In fact at this time of resolutions I am going to try to do just that. I resolve not to get angry with those who give voice to their anguish when life doesn’t go their way. I may wish for a world where all fans become more rather than less supportive when the team is struggling but that isn’t the world I live in and so I need to adjust.
I don’t expect it to be easy but I’m going to try. All supporters who want the best for the team regardless of how they express it are effectively on the same side. Those who wish ill on the manager and players are not included. Oh, and neither are people who set off fireworks in the middle of the night in response to the whims of Pope Gregory XIII. They can go shove their heads up a dead bear’s bum.
Positively Arsenal 
Nice work Stew, all the best to you for 2017.
Heres to the Guns blowing the Smeagles away.
COYG!
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Hello Mills happy ‘just another day in the week’ to you too. Was wondering where you’d got to.
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Ive been under a frogs arse at the bottom of a coal mine, as the Ungarische say.
I agree it is just another day of the week.Odd how we build up such strange illusions in the great delusion!
I cant stand the fireworks either.
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“A dead bear’s bum” Steww? After last night’s curry followed by lots of Merlot, I feel dead and the curry has left me feeling that I know exactly what the bear feels like. Somewhat tweezer arsed with only the hope of many goals to relieve the ungodly miasma that inflicts me at present. Hopefully 3 points and none of the tension of last week please.
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Happy new year Steww good to see you was partying into the early hours of the morning like the teenager you secretly aspire to be.
Flu is indeed a killer to fast flowing football and I hope we dont have to risk players dosed up to their eyeballs with medicine just to get them out on the pitch.
I suspect our squad is better than the previous occassions when we’ve had to patch players up and send them out.
This is another game when were having to cope with the new manager bounce however it may have come to early for fat sam to have imposed his style on the palace players.
ARSENAL starting 2017 with flashes of brilliance and 3 points would be just the tonic for a good nights sleep tonight. COYG
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Good morning Stew,
A late start in Norfolk after the finish of activities early this morning. Foul weather, even appropriate clothing will not spring me. I shall be looking for a workmanlike performance this afternoon from our lads.
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The idiot tweets/comments are pretty much always from people that don’t really understand football and rely on the fuck-wit pundits for their tactical input, forgetting that very few of the pundits actually know what they’re talking about.
A soldier rarely sees, and almost never understands what’s really happening on a battlefield outside of his immediate field of vision and even then he’s usually concentrating so hard on one specific event/issue (as well as trying to stay alive) that he misses most of the action around him. Footballers are the same and rarely understand anything beyond their immediate interactions and personal duels, but they’re then expected to give insight about parts of the game they’ve never done or even noticed previously…
When TV/Radio starts getting some knowledgeable pundits then I’ll start taking notice of them, which is unlikely to happen in this life time 😀 .
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I don’t think today will be much fun for the young one, or anyone else expecting breathtaking open play. Sammus Maximimus will have his chippy van parked in front of Palace’s goal line.
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Hahaha! Always a pleasure to articles here. This is a nice one to warm me up before the game today.
I drank so much last night but I have woken up feeling great. Hope it is a sign for today and 2017.
Happy New Year folks.
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We have had a little stutter recently, and Palace scrapping for their lives DC – perfect introduction to football.
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Beauty and the Beast
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Spurs two nil up…..they all keep bloody winning….all of them! ….ok I know City yesterday…..but…..
Guess our boys just have to do the same
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Happy New Year Steww, everybody.
I read earlier that more people die over the two weeks of Xmas than any other time of the year and certainly Watford are dying on the arses here as the 3rd spud goal nestles in the back of a welcoming Vicarage Road net.
Exceptionally lacklustre performance from them, more What?ford than Watford. Lucky Spuds getting a walkover ahead of their next game.
Hope we get something similar though I suspect it’ll be anything but.
At least our January fixtures are relatively ‘easy’ compared to our immediate rivals. If we can get any kind of result from today and Tuesday (and I’m sure we can), we’ll be very nicely set for the month ahead.
Of Stew’s observations on fan behaviour, I think 80% of fans won’t hesitate to show gutted disappointment at a loss/draw, 10% are foul on an industrial scale and 10% are happy to annoy the other 90% with a relentlessly cheerful and positive outlook. Do I mean us?!
I think I do.
Enjoy the game everyone (regardless of the result!).
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Tough times for the WOB, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham competing for their affections
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Ollie @OIIieAFC 31 Dec 2016
Kevin de Bruyne, who cost more than Ozil, without a goal in 12 games, but lets just ignore that because its not Ozil
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ozil not in the squad
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flamini starts for crystal palace
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1GAKdBWgAEO4OE.jpg:large
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a little surprised that ramsey did not get the no.10 role with ozil out due to illness
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Wenger needs Ramsey and The Ox to make a difference in the last 20 minutes. After analyzing the data it is making more sense to me.
Happy New Year Steww. I think of you as the blogger that appeals to the right-side of the brain. We need you to help us think bigger than footbaal. Excellent start to 2017.
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Said I was worried about that little bit flu.
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That’s a very attacking eleven with Iwobi and three centre forwards.,
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eduardo792, Yes KdB has under-achieved yet again so far this season. There’s no doubt he’s a quality player but he should be showing some real consistency in his 2nd season. Especially for £55m… Having said that, I’d buy him tomorrow for £40m…
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Please
Flamini, have an off day
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lets hope wenger hugs alexis after the game, so that we are spared the idiotic type articles that andy dunn had in the mirror today, its amazing what passes as journalism these days.
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far more concerned about Coquelin’s absence than anyone else’s. Most important player in our squad. No one else anticipates like he does, the fancy players can’t work without the ball and he gets it for them when the opposition least expect it.
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dc not sure what way flamini will react now that ozil is not in the team, the hearbreak could destroy him
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COYG
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Giroud really should have scored there, as should lucas, it was a great ball in by monreal
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townsend late on monreal
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Oh my God
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What a goal. What a fucking goal
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“utterly magnificent” is what the commentator called it and he was not wrong, Giroud with a contender for goal of the season, and it, unlike mkhitaryan’s was way on side.
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I’m crying.
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Giroud should not really have scored there
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Everything about it from the impudent passing around our own box to the midfield back heel and that finish. Golden moment.,
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Andy – shouldn’t have been able to you mean?
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Iwobi is fast filling the hole Tomáš left in my heart.
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Gary Neville on Giroud’s scorpion-kick goal: “I have to say, it’s one of the best goals I’ve ever seen.” [Sky]
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Eddy – I just said the same to Liz and I’ve been watching longer than Neville.
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It’s the fact that he so obviously meant it. You can see the way he looks to follow the flight of the ball. It wasn’t a despairing reach for a lost cause.
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Sky Sports Statto @SkySportsStatto 7m7 minutes ago
Olivier Giroud scores his 62nd PL goal, equalling Robert Pires’ total. Only 4 Frenchman have more PL goals – Henry, Anelka, Saha & Cantona
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Playing some lovely football in slippery conditions.
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the thing about the goal is not just the wonder finish, it was the whole build up, right from the interception by lucas, the back heel lay off by giroud, the cross by alexis, the finish.
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Excellent preview Steww.
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OG looks fresh and sharp today. Not just in the goal but all over the pitch. Rotation paying off.
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Koscielny is a majestic footballer.
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HT: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
totally dominated the half, scored the goal of the season, and really could and should have had one or two more. Lets hope we keep it up in the second half.
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so Ramsey was one of our players who had flu during the week, its what has kept ozil out of the squad today, and wenger says mesut is still in bed, so not likely he will be available on tuesday
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Bet Zaha wouldn’t mind seeing his number held up. Facing some talented and determined young boys out there.
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