When I saw the pictures of the Arsenal training in wintry snow ahead of today’s trip to Swansea I confess to harbouring a certain sympathy for them. As my Scottish uncle used to say to me that snell wind makes everone fair jeelit. The sympathy has evaporated this morning as I sit in my frozen writing shed stabbing with numb fingers at my frost hardened Smith-Corona. But on I plough.
It wasn’t only compassion which moved in my breast at the sight of poor Danny Welbeck muffled in his muffler. I also felt a twang of envy. You see I rather like the town of Swansea and I was a little jealous of the players and fans who will get to visit today. I should imagine the beach at Rhossili will be a bit parky this weekend so I doubt a trip to the Gower is on the cards, but I do urge you to make a weekend of it if you are travelling and at least have a little tour.
Swansea City FC, we are told, has done much to put the ‘ugly, lovely town’ on the map. Since their ascendency to the higher reaches they’ve earned plaudits for playing the game as many of us like to see it played. A fashionable football team allied with a popular university can encourage an enlightened view of what had previously been regarded as a somewhat grim industrial setting.
Sadly the Swans have been struggling of late. I’ll leave you to decide whether the managerial merry go round in which they’ve indulged themselves has been cause or effect of this unwelcome downturn in their fortunes. Personally I think it is always a mistake in life to panic, to chop and change when things are going badly.
An unfashionable view in a footballing world where many seem to crave change simply for the sake of change itself. I can only assume that decades of consumer culture, of an economy built on endless growth, demands we throw away and replace at every opportunity. This is not the road to happiness, merely the endless dissatisfaction of the spoilt child given too much, too often.
So while I am grateful for any advantage to the team I support I am also saddened to see one of the few smaller clubs to actually beat us by coming and out playing football going through hard times. I believe the league is improved by keeping the good guys and losing the dross and not the other way around.
Improvement of the league isn’t the concern of most of you, I know this. All that matters is three points and that is of course your prerogative. Just as it is the prerogative of those who take a more holistic view to want to be part of a culture of excellence rather than a lowest common denominator tactical dirge, which, if given too much rope, will strangle the golden goose as audiences eventually tire and turn away.
So Swansea are all at sea and should be there for the taking. Surely an away win is such a guaranteed result that there is no point in even watching. Just go bung a tenner on us at the bookies and collect your one pence winnings at ten to five. Well perhaps. Perhaps if you’d never watched a season of football from start to finish. Maybe this is your reality. In my reality teams who are struggling need to be put to the sword a little before their fragile confidence is exposed.
Concede an unlucky goal such as that fortuitous, bobbling, pinball series of deflections which gifted Preston the lead the other day and that fragile confidence will cease to be a factor. A team in decline can still surprise you and we will need to be sharp and up to the scratch from the moment Mr Jones emits his primary peep.
What of the teams? Swansea will be without Neil Taylor after having his cheekbone broken in training on Wednesday. I don’t know much about the estimable Mr Taylor but as he played every minute of the Welsh teams heroic failure in the Euros I’m sure Kelly, our resident Cymru expert, can fill us in on the details. Losing a first choice international full back against an Arsenal team rightly famed for their fast, wide attacking game cannot be a good thing.
They will also be missing Jefferson Antonio Montero Vite who is one player and not four as you might think. He is a fast and dangerous wingers and one that the home team will surely miss. Talking of flyers we still see no sign of Theo nor of Hector and I am just beginning to worry that Theo’s small, irrelevant, only keeping him out as a precaution, niggle might be turning into something more significant. It is a mark of the quality in our squad that we can miss these two hugely important players and still approach any fixture with confidence.
Given Gabriel’s flawless understudy shift when Hector first joined the sick list and seeing just what a player Arsène signed in Lucas Perez I don’t think we need to be overly concerned. Of course we want our first choice players fit and healthy but Perez in particular excites me and so I’ll be happy to see him step up in Theo’s absence.
With Danny back and raring to go we have a superfluity of striking options which ought to make us blush. Sanchez and Giroud are in stunning scoring form, Mesut has also stepped up in front of goal this season and we all know the boy Iwobi can find the net when the fancy takes him. Add to that the goals Aaron can get us running from midfield and the Swansea defence ought to be in for a trying time this afternoon.
I shan’t be watching with you today as I have been thoroughly duped by my ever resourceful wife into attending what I’d assumed was an evening event but transpires to start at three and finish at seven thirty. That will teach me not to listen when I’m trying to concentrate on Doom Three Hell On Earth. Lesson learned. Press pause and get all of the details before saying yes to anything.
If you are lucky enough to be in beautiful South Wales today then wrap up warm and should you bump into me at Longleat’s Festival Of Lights don’t tell me the score, it wouldn’t enhance our friendship.
Positively Arsenal 
lucas and welbeck on for ozil and alexis
really do not like how alexis acted coming off there, alright he can be disappointed to be taken off, but he has scored, we have won, and we have lots of games to come, no need to be like that
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Sanchez distraught lol!
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well we can see why wenger does not like xhaka shooting form distance,
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how has naughton not been booked in this game, crazy ref
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3 minutes stoppage time to be played
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Our central midfied did a good job. Arsene focused on attacking down the flanks. Rambo and Xhaka were compact enough. Thoughts?
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Alex Iwobi was my man-of-the-match. A constant attacking threat. This boy is growing into a helluva player.
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FT: swansea 0-4 arsenal
slow start, cech with a great save, but once we scored it was never in doubt. giroud with the first, iwobi with the second and his shot deflected in for an og on the third, alexis with the 4th.
did not like how alexis behaved when taken off.
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Well it seems the boys read my last blog; https://positivelyarsenal.com/2017/01/10/an-open-letter-to-the-arsenal-1st-team/
Great show.
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ah shotta you seen a different cm than the malcontents, xhaka and ramsey useless, did you not know.
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oh and shotta, giroud the reason why we did not have the game won in the first half, he is the reason we are not ripping teams apart, alexis needed up front. simple really.
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Arsenal beat Swansea home and away in the same season for the first time ever in the Premier League.
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Shotts, we knew the plan from Swansea and it nearly got them the opener in that opening burst but AFC were too good for them today.
Lots of errors from Xhaka in that first 15 mins but much better thereafter, impressed with Ramsey now finding his fitness and confidence and rhythm.
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Iwobi growing before our eyes during that second half especially.
Magnificent performance
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Fins and Eddy: I have a dude on twitter telling me Xhaka should take more contol of midfield cause he is better than Rambo. Unbelievable. Xhaka has a lot of improving to do.
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Question: If you are a defender and you have a choice of passing to Rambo or Xhaka in central midfield?
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It looks the’re not giving Alex the goal on the first shot. He certainley grew as the game went on and should get MOTM.
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Agigtators went from Alexis is not a striker he’s a winger,we need Giroud upfront but Wenger hates Giroud . To Giroud is shit get Alexis back up there Giroud slows us down.
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Agitators* one hand typing I’m not the best
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hopefully Steww will get a hard on watching that
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shotta_gooner
January 14, 2017 at 5:10 pm
Question: If you are a defender and you have a choice of passing to Rambo or Xhaka in central midfield?
That depends really in what position they will receive the ball and which defender is going to make the pass.
Mustafi is the best penetrative passer from the back.
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Yup WWWB. Mustafi has a variety of passes; between and through the lines. My point is playing passes to Xhaka under pressure is a greater risk than passing to Ramsey.
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I agree shotta, xhaka under pressure seems to cough up the ball a lot more than ramsey does, but as there is a whole section of arsenal web world and twitter land who hate on ramsey, you will see a lot more complaints about ramsey than you will for any other arsenal player, i think him scoring the winner in the cup final was the final nail in his coffin as far as the wob were concerned.
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what a complete and utter hypocrite Chris Sutton is,(fits nicely with the rest of his character, as we all know he is a complete and utter cunt), but lets take two things he talked about on final score today, the title race and players loyalty to a club.
Title race, – spurs(1pt ahead of AFC), could even be title favorites right now, but Arsenal are not in the title race. Man Utd, man city, liverpool and chelsea are all in the title race along with spurs.
Player loyalty – well for sutton this is how it goes for 3 players who have been in the news this week, Payet, Costa and Defoe.
Payet is a cunt who should be sold as soon as possible, no player is bigger than the club, if he don’t want to play for whu then get rid as quick as possilbe
Costa is the best player in the league and under no circumstances can cfc afford to sell him, it would cost them the league title. Keep him and let it all blow over.
Defoe is at a sinking ship and he should get out as quick as he can. He is too good for Sunderland.
its a bloody disgrace that BBC spend tax payers money on a hypocrite like sutton.
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agree totally, I pointed out the other week Xhaka looks hesitent before he plays a pass i’m sure he will improve but certainly at the moment Aaron is better at receiving the ball when he is facing our own goal, something to be fair he has always done since he first came in the side.
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lcfc without the dive penalties and a blind eye to shirt holding in defense are shite.
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wenger said after the game that giroud was injured and wanted to come off 5 minutes before he scored, and then when he scored too. an ankle injury, but we got 60 minutes out of him, and we don’t know how bad the injury is. Alexis not injured, just unhappy at being taken off as he wants to play every minute of every game.
now I know giroud got our opener, and it was probably all important, but what is going on when we leave an injured player on for 30 minutes after he is injured and us with 3 forward players on the bench. Surely once we scored we should have taken Giroud off. Lets hope its only a minor injury and he is ok for next week v Burnley, who by the way have that odious cunt Joey Barton playing for them, he scored their winner today.
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WWWB – Passmap shows top defence to midfield passing combination is Mustafi to Aaron. Xhaka is not as trusted.
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Arsenal Nexus @ArsenalNexus 11m11 minutes ago
Ki: “It was a penalty, Koscielny’s leg was on mine.”
Whilst his ankle was twisted into the ground & you threw yourself down
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Hope this passmap shows up:
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Oh god Eddy; Why would the manager want to keep his top striker on the field after setting up the team to complement his strengths?
Don’t start sounding like the people you frequently and justly criticize.
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shotta once we took the lead and with giroud clearly wanting to come off, and wenger admitting he does not know how bad the injury is, why take a risk with it, we have had similar in the past that has come back to bite us in the ass. Also once we went 2 up, he should have been off there and then. but it took us a further 6 minutes to get him off. TV pictures showed Giroud on the bench near the end of the game clearly in pain, lets hope the injury has not been made worse by getting an extra half hour out of him.
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HT: Leicester City 0-1 Chelsea
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Alexis Sanchez 14 goals 7 assists in the PL alone.
Has to be the best in the PL this season.
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I expect Arsene probably thinks Giroud is a bit of a drama queen Eddy. The Frenchman must master his inner pain and unleash the dragon.
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In the interests of gender balance I would also allow for Arsene considering Olivier a drama king
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giroud might be a drama queen, but even when we seen his finger wagging and slapping the ground, etc have we ever saw him asking to be taken off, that is the difference today.
a few times in the past we have excused the leaving on of injured players(who ended up out for some time), cos the player reportedly said they were ok to continue. But here we have a player asking to come off, but being left on. with Giroud in the form of his life, I can’t see him asking to be taken off if he was not really hurt.
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Giroud has become the first Arsenal player to score in 5 successive games in all competitions since Emmanuel Adebayor in January-February 2008.
wenger says olly has an ankle injury and will need to be assessed before we know how severe it is.
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Hopefully it’s not broken eddy – I remember Cesc playing with a fractured tibia or fib – very plucky. A bit bonkers actually but it is that demented desperation that I’m looking for among Arsenal players.
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Shotta
When Sanchez takes his dogs for a run who wears the leash? Clue: not his physio
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When I was pointing out some of the faults in Xhaka game in the beginning of the season , I was attacked as a hater.
Weirdly I am actually a big fan but he does have a few issues.
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< who holds the leash!
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Xhaka was never going to earn an automatic starting berth over the midfield general who masterminded the demolition of the team currently 0-3 up against the poor pgMOB champions from last year.
He was 23 when signed, Cazorla is 32…
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Leicester have been about as good as Swansea today but the idea that the CFC would struggle without the hideously ugly Costa seem a bit off the mark. Pity really.
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Nice save, Andy.
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I meant on the ‘drama king’ thing, to be clear. (banned smiley)
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eduardo
Giroud asked to come off, the Ox was told to warm up, and was putting on his shirt to come on, when Giroud signalled to the bench again to wait and not sub him then.
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There was an interesting convo between Nacho and Oli right after the goal. It didn’t look to be a celebration, almost a “man we need you to stay if you can” kind of thing. I’m probably reading way to much into it.
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Jonny @JonnyOneill 18m18 minutes ago
Personally I think Jamie Vardy should do another interview about turning Arsenal down.
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Trust me my finger was hovering over the transgender/transitioning button Kelly – can’t be too careful.
(I know Mel is a still a bit raw)
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