I’ve tried to gain inspiration for today’s preview from the deluge of football which has swamped us around the turning of the year. Unfortunately as I don’t care about the other teams involved in these fixtures all I got for my troubles was a crick in the neck from trying to do other things while simultaneously keeping an eye on matches I wouldn’t normally condescend to acknowledge.
Of course it’s disingenuous to suggest that the results of our rivals have no impact on our season. The final league positions are decided by an holistic interweaving of results each affecting the others in a complex web of possibilities. That wasn’t why I watched Middlesbrough though. Not really. I watched them simply because Calum was playing and I’m intrigued to see if I can glean anything from his performances.
After Francis Coquelin’s inspired return from the barren wastes of the loan wilderness any Arsenal player currently honing their craft on alien pitches has that delicious potential to become an Emirates based game changer. The problem I have with watching an entire match just to enjoy the contribution of one player is the same as watching the Welsh international team. I’m simply not invested in the result nor the contest as a whole. One doesn’t enjoy a gourmet meal by lifting a single ingredient onto one’s fork and abstaining from the rest.
Not that ‘boro or Wales provided cordon bleu cookery, far from it, but I hope my point still stands. The gastronomic delight du jour in the Arsenal kitchen has been cooked up of course by our Gallic heartthrob. He has been promising a goal of such superlative defying elegant ostentation ever since he joined us. Older readers may remember February of twenty thirteen when I was moved to write these words:
“Out of absolutely nowhere and without bothering to so much as take a touch never mind think about a pass, Olivier Giroud, still some thirty yards from goal and near the touchline unleashed a terrifying dipping shot which would have snapped the Mordor keeper in half if it had hit him. OK so the shot missed the target by a fraction, Arsene got off the bench and signalled his displeasure, the commentators pointed out how well placed Ramsay was and we came home with a well earned point but no more.
But I was captivated by that moment. The audacity, the confidence, the technique. Name three other attributes you want more in your centre forward. Go on. Name them.
But of course the goals started to come. He opened his account against Coventry in the widdley diddley cup and gave us this fantastic quote “This goal has taken the pressure off me. It’s done, I have my first goal. But it has to be the start of a beautiful adventure.” And I started to love him just a little bit.
“But it has to be the start of a beautiful adventure.” Perfect. I’ve been accused of being a bit of a romantic where football is concerned and maybe that is true but like Larry I believe a player’s career and relationship with us should be just that. Wasn’t Thierry’s Arsenal career a beautiful adventure? How else would you describe it? I like that bit of poetry in Giroud’s make up. It complements his physical prowess rather neatly.”
What excited then me was the sense of adventure and invention which all great players have and which provides the moments we love and cherish, briefly lending the epithet ‘beautiful game’ a ring of truth. I think Giroud’s subsequent contribution to the side has vindicated my optimism. The blend of the sublime with an obvious physicality has been present in many of his goals and his vital assists.
His misfortune was to be born into an era dominated by over reaction and the promotion of idiocy which the internet has inadvertently spawned. Had he played in earlier times he’d have been rightly lauded for the player he has always been and not just for one moment of brilliance.
Today the players will need to find other attributes to compliment the skill and speed of their natural game. With an extremely ill timed flu bug working through the camp, injuries still robbing some players of match sharpness, others of any fitness at all, Elneny departing for international duty, and having played just the day before yesterday, stamina and determination will matter as much as fluency and improvisation.
Bournemouth have won and lost three each of their previous six games and are one of those sides I find difficult to predict. They don’t strike me as naturally suited to the suffocating defensive tactics beloved of many of our opponents nor quite good enough to go toe to toe in a straight footballing contest with us. But then, neither did Everton.
The Cherries’ best result was probably the four three over Liverpool who are enjoying their best form for a few years. There was also the six they stuck past Hull but then they’ve contrived to lose to Burnley, Sunderland, Stoke, and West Ham so pick the bones out of that lot. As I say, unpredictable, up and down; they are capable of flowing football and abject defending and their best hope will be our lack of fully fit players. They’ve had one day longer to recover since an away win at Swansea. Precious little you might say but when we’re talking of a four day period it is significant nonetheless.
I’ll settle for a win however achieved but I wouldn’t say no to another slice of scrumptious footballing cuisine from the man who stole my heart over four years ago. As I said back then “A man who should have taken a season to win me round had me in that one sparkling moment of near brilliance back in August. There’s just something very Arsenal about him.”
Positively Arsenal 
Wenger time
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6 minutes stoppage time to be played
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Come on you lazy fuckers – we want 4
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what a fucking great header by Giroud
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Another handsome header from the HFB
COYG
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I meant us !
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we’ve been on the back foot since making it 3-3
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andy don’t scare me… surely we didn’t concede?
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giroud named man of the match by niall quinn
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Quite an impressive comeback I would say, in the circumstances.
Some of them are going to need a bit of a break
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“The referees a wanker” I hear on the Dorset evening breeze – can’t understand how the locals were not impressed by an almost perfect 10 from Mr O?
Yes my friends it has been a fair old night.
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FT: 3-3
a great comeback, but it really has to be asked, where was that life we showed after being 3-0 down, from our players when we let it get to 3-0, up to that point we had lost the battle all over the pitch, and then at 3-0 we sprang to life, and what can you say about lucas great goal, and giroud’s great header, both pure class.
by the way I’m taking credit for waking up Giroud, cos as I wrote this he sprang to life
“very disappointed by Giroud tonight, he has scored two fantastic goals in our last two games, so I would have expected him to be full of confidence and to really take this game by the scruff of the neck”
and he went and took the game by the scruff of the neck, two assists, and the leveling goal, I’m going to have to start slagging him prematch in future.
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Great stop from Petr Team – Bournemouth not read the script
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a few bad mad and good perfomances today in the end the push in the back on Hector going unpunished cost us the win
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Thank the good lord the boys are stronger than me. I don’t know what ailed us in the first half, but what a comeback. Proud of this team.
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That is it AoB – another decisive refereeing blunder robbed us from a deserved victory.
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we have preston away in the fac on saturday evening, surely we can give anyone who needs a rest the game off, Holding needs a game, as does ospina, no reason not to let lucas and ox start, and maybe just maybe we will have welbeck in the squad. I hope theo and gibbs are back too. Coquelin and santi injured, and elneny away, so all of a sudden we are down to the bare bones in cm, with xhaka and ramsey the only senior options, do we go with them, or wrap them up in cotton wool for our bpl games.
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Admittedly the fact we were getting our collective arses tanned for long periods of the game may have had something to do with it.
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Hull have just sacked Phelan….like anyone else is going to do better there….
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Can’t say I enjoyed the 1st half, we weren’t fully at the races (as expected after two days since the previous game; Bellerin’s relative lethargy evidence of the madness of the fixture schedule).
Only real surprise was how late Arsenal left it to fully engage the opposition. Thought Lucas (as well as you-know-who) was very exciting.
We are half way through the season.
If any idiot wants to write off Arsenal at this stage be my guest; it’s all to play for in my opinion.
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the malcontents are really going to be extra pissed off when Wenger says
“we showed great mental strength”
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Larry gets in the first “mental strength” of the evening – good man
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Well I never. I have to admit I was not expecting that come back. It’s a shame we let it get so far before waking up, but not losing from where we were after 60 minutes could be a tremendous boost to the never-say-die spirit needed to fight for every point going.
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interesting stat that Bournemouth ran 7 or 8 km more tonight that they have averaged all season, and it was 7km more than Arsenal ran tonight, and yes they did have an extra days rest than our boys
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by the way, what happened Koscielny
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Interesting having another look at that 3rd Bournemouth goal.
Bellerin shoved over with impunity, Granit punished with a penalty for something very similar.
Suck it up boys and girls, suck it up.
Just don’t expect anyone to be happy with the state of refereeing in this country.
That’s what really sucks.
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totally agree the team made far more blunders than the ref however he had perfect sight of a simple decision if he was unsure he has to give benefit of the doubt to the defender.
Like you say overall he didnt have a bad game but like a keeper letting the ball roll through his hands a ref can spoil his performance with one really bad call and as it turned out our poor display for much of the game wouldn’t have mattered had he called it correctly.
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Henry is a pillock, says it was a harsh red card, jeez he really is a prat.
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The way Kosc jogged off it looked like a back problem
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ah kos has a history of trapping a nerve in his back, usually does not keep him out long.
he was holding his back right from that first foul on him in the first minute of the game.
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Watching it first time it looked like a clear push – watching it from behind and watching – for some inexplicable reason Hector put his arm across Fraser – I’m less convinced
I’ve seen em given mind you
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yes AA their penalty and the shove on bellerin for the third are almost carbon copies, one a foul, the other not, just like the several offside calls given wrongly against us tonight, one, monreal was well onside, the other iwobi onside and the offside ramsey did not go for the ball, so it should have been play on. how many more decisions are going to be wrongly given against us
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I wondered how long it would take to all be Michael Oliver’s fault !
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arsene has given me the headline
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Opposition fans are trying very hard to make us feel disappointed about the result, dont fall for it. Trust me gooners the truth is they are sad we grabbed that decent point. It was a point worthy of jealousy. Gooner for life
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I thought Oliver had a fair enough game, but then I have come to expect the rules to be applied differently for Arsenal than for our opponents. I really thought the worst decision of the night was the offside v monreal, and next worst was the offside v iwobi. the push on bellerin was the 3rd worst decision from the officials.
Our players were very poor for an hour of that game, lost battle after battle, made many wrong decisions, hit many poor passes, bellerin was awful on the first goal, and xhaka was just plain stupid for the penalty, it was completely needless. Sadly we still inflict many of the problems upon ourselves.
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I don’t know why we were worried about losing that game, even at 3-0, after all Mustafi was playing,
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Sky Sports News HQVerified account
@SkySportsNewsHQ
Sky sources: Arsenal will complete the signing of Hednesford defender Cohen Bramall in the next 48 hours: http://skysports.tv/Md8c2x #SSNHQ
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ARSENAL TO SIGN BRAMALL
Earlier we were telling you about Arsenal’s interest in Hednesford defender Cohen Bramall and Sky sources understand they will complete a deal for him in the next 48 hours.
Bramall impressed during a two day trial just before Christmas and has been training with club ever since.
The 20-year-old has competed a medical and will sign two and a half year deal, with Hednesford expected to receive around £40,000 for the left-back.
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Shite scheduling, shite refereeing, Arsene out.
Not a lot changes, let’s face it.
Roll on video technology. Roll on fair fixture scheduling (sorry, no one’s talking about that one).
May ultimately prove to be too late to help Arsene but that will be our loss, not his.
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I wonder did Bramall play in the FAC for Hednesford, or could he possibly be thrown in for his debut on Saturday, if he does sign for us.
the word is that the lad is very quick, can play fullback or wing, both right and left.
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CD14 @c_d_14 16m16 minutes ago
It’s a shit way for it to happen but Xhaka and Ramsey are guaranteed games together now. Let’s see what they can do.
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Holy fuck, the malcontents are complaining about Giroud celebrating our injury time equalizer, it seems he should have just picked up the ball and ran back to the half way line, so we could go looking for the winner. what a dry shower of cunts they are
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Really hope you are not right about May AA…….but if he does go, dread to imagine how what will be a lesser manager will cope with some of the issues Wenger and the club face
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Interesting about the Ramsey Xhaka pairing….which will no doubt end up called Raka or something equally silly. Something about those two could well work , they seem to balance each other, but will take time. Hope Coq is not out too long, will need him as well
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Mandy – that partnership will be a test so Xhaka/Ramsey will be known as Examsey.
Coat.
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Bollocks. I’m in no doubt now that less than three days rest makes a significant difference.
This is the cost of TV money. Still, I hope someone with more time and appetite can examine the schedules because it seems unfair to us and presumably the others who have Champions League commitments.
Still, it was a great comeback.
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Pretty good!! Or even Ramshak……
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I see Palace lost at home to swansea, the extra days rest seems to have done the welsh side a power of good
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Funny that, Eddy.
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