Bore da Welsh speaking Positive people and good morning to any others who have stumbled across the threshold,
A foul, wet morning in Norfolk which does nothing to deflect my good mood and optimism this Sunday.
Of yesterday’s game it provided probably the easiest three points we have earned all season. Given the thumping we administered to the ‘Ammers that is saying something but I say yesterday had the edge in terms of easy contest.
Admittedly the afternoon started a little differently. With the shiny new Mr Clement in charge, hair neatly cut and black overcoat tightly buttoned, I anticipated a vigorous workout against a club who have had the ‘eye’ (¤) on us in recent seasons.
Our hosts starting purposefully, playing a bit of real passing football, harrying our lads with intent for half an hour. As is our usual modus operandi we allowed the Welsh dragon to run out of puff about the 30 and then imposed ourselves to take control of the game. Sanchez. The opener before half time was inevitable I think as by that stage Sanchez and Ozil had run off the rust that had accumulated from their lengthy holidays and both were able to find space and receive enough ball to weave their respective magic spells.
The kerfuffle that Olivier’s ankle caused following the goal was a bit mystifying, but not as mystifying at first sight as the card that young Ki picked up for diving in our box. HOWEVER, having had the opportunity to review the incident from a number of different angles while I see contact, yes. I do not see contact sufficient to fell the player in the manner observed. Good call referee and a considerable relief to go in 1-0 up after what had been a strong finish to the half by our hosts. On such small details victories pivot.
If Mr Jones eagle eyed wisdom in spotting the South Korean’s deceit was an omen the Welsh failed to heed its portent. Instead, as the game sparked back into life in the second half, they found themselves pinned in their half by a mighty hurricane in black and fluorescent yellow. We really turned up the game to top gear and the Swans could not live with it.
Over the next 20 minutes they disintegrated like an upset jigsaw puzzle when the fates turned against them. And what fates they were on the day! The goals themselves I acknowledge were hardly classic Wengerball, and I admit a certain sympathy for our former keeper as he plucked the ball out from the second own goal. Rage at the moon all you like Lukasz, with our lads banging in accurate shots from all around the box there is a probability that one day the deflection will be in our favour, and yesterday the luck fell our way.
Of our lads ? As I think was said yesterday by several contributors on here Alex Iwobi had an outstanding game and the longer the game went on the stronger he got. Four shots in the box – that is what I want to see. The first time that Aaron has started two consecutive games this season and that continuity was reflected in his greater influence and more certain touch. I thought Monreal was great yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the physical battle he and Dyer and Naughton got into. And finally a word of praise for Gabriel who, as he always does, came in and did his job thoroughly and quietly.
Of our opponents Sigurdsson is a good player. He will find suitors knocking if, as seems probable, Swansea slip away in May. The rest ? Over to Mr Clement for some hard work.
Hwyl fawr am nawr and enjoy your Sunday!
Positively Arsenal 
Thinking it was a fair result. Liverpool could have won it imo if they were more clinical on the counter attack. Result suits us.
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no multiple red cards, but still a good result result for the Arsenal.
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Looking on the tables; this went very well for us.
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The amount of decisions (incorrectly) going Man U’s way every game is terribly getting out of hand, their players are freely allowed to kick-box the shit out of opponents without punishment (bit like Spuds).
anywho, both teams dropping points good for Arsenal.
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Good result for us.
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not too bad a weekend, points gained on liverpool, city and utd.
city play spurs next saturday, so if we beat Burnley on Sunday we are certain to gain points on at least one of them next weekend too.
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after 21 games man utd are in 6th and are 12pts off top spot
last season
after 21 games man utd were in 6th and 9pts off top spot
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next weekend chelsea (home to hull), Liverpool (home to swansea) and Man utd (away to stoke) all likely to have easy wins, so important we beat burnley
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Mourinho’s Man United in Premier League.
v Liverpool: drew 0-0 and 1-1
v Chelsea: lost 4-0
v Man City: lost 2-1
v Arsenal:1-1
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so will the fa act and ban pogba for this – he flung henderson to the ground by the neck, could easily have caused serious injury
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today went as I wanted with all close rivals dropping points
although Liverpool goes ahead of us but they take 2 points off man u which can only be good. the father away from the top 4 JM is the happier I am. others that will beat pool are ahead.
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other than Ozil plays for Arsenal and they do not, why are Pogba and De Bruyne never given the ozil treatment by the media, is it an Arsenal thing, a german thing, a muslim thing, or a combo of all three thing.
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now there is an example of an incompetent linesman, no not the fact he did not give the offside, its the fact that he was in a position where he could not possibly do his job, he was ten yards ahead of the play, impossible to adjudge an offside call from there. will he be demoted, unlikely for many reasons, mostly mike riley.
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OptaJoe @OptaJoe 3h3 hours ago
4-0 – This is Pep Guardiola’s heaviest ever defeat in league competition as a manager. Humbled.
Pep can take solace from the fact that fans and bloggers have jumped to his defense and are backing him to the hilt, he is still their messiah, only problem is that they are not city fans or bloggers, they are arsenal fans and bloggers
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I suspect Valencia probably was a bit offside and dry – what the picture demonstrates imo is someone who is unable to draw an accurate red line to show two points on a football pitch for the purpose of proving an offside point – it’s bent
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Paddy @VieiraPaddy 9m9 minutes ago
Szczesny kept 8 clean sheets in Serie A last season, has already kept 8 this season. In second place. First place has 9.
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anicol you are correct that the line in the picture is wrong, but that has nothing at all to do with the linesman being way way out of position, he could in no way make an accurate call of offside from where he is, he is about ten yards from where he is meant to be, that is in line with the last defender. that is awful.
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and will this artist of dubious red lines be held to account in relation to his crimes against technical drawing ? Will he be banished to practice with crayons until he learns to produce an accurate red line across the baize ?
Unlikely for many reasons
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is the line inaccurate, going by the cut in the grass it seems to be right, what he has wrong is where he has put it, as it should be in line with the defenders shoulder, not where he has it.
also i very much doubt anyone on twitter paid the artist of the line for his drawing, but the lineman is certainly being paid,
on a serious note, why is he so far out of position, there is no way he could make an offside call from there
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Sniper @clockendsniper 19m19 minutes ago
Man United PL home form
Played 11
Won 5
Drawn 5
Lost 1
8th best in the league.
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Ten yards ! Where on earth is he supposed to be ?
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Ffs now everyone with a red pen and a digital camera to snap their TV screen is an expert on exactly where the referee and the Lino should be standing to do their job
Looking at the red line it looks off centre to me – as for whether it tells me anything it doesn’t / because I cannot see the ball and I have no indicator of when the ball is struck and what the position of the players, or the Lino for that matter, is at that precise moment – a two dimensional snapshot with a dubious mark on it doesn’t really help much.
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Where is the ball – I can’t see it ?
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the linesman is meant to be in line with the last defender, that is so he can make an offside decision. where the ball is has no relevance to where the linesman is meant to place himself.
the ball is with the man utd player beside the liverpool no.14
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Pogba showed what a pony player he is. Emre Can and Jordon Henderson ran circles around him today. He can’t find a place in the Man Ure midfield because he’s a shit version of Yaya Toure. Yaya gets away with playing in a modern midfield because he’s quick on the pass and can dribble past players. Pogba can’t do either very well.
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but but but but gainsbourgh he cost an ambitious amount of money, and he dabs, and he very good in vines, and the media love him,
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Dinklage @Dinklage_Afc 14m14 minutes ago
Bet you a tenner if you asked Paul Merson who is leading the race for POTY he’d say Kevin de Bruyne.
Man hasn’t scored in 4 months.
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Steve Gooner @Merse10 4h4 hours ago
Other clubs have “transition seasons” or go through “rebuilding process”. You don’t think Arsene has had to do that multiple times in 20yrs?
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Ed Malyon @eaamalyon 6h6 hours ago
Justin Kluivert, 17-year-old son of Patrick, makes his Ajax debut
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I’ve got it – the Lino needs to keep one eye on final defender in the middle of the park, though arguably I can’t see why focussing on the last defender would help if he did not stay in line with the attacker furthest forward – anyway let’s assume he has one eye on that
And the other eye in this shot he has on the ball 15-20 yards down the line which is about to be crossed.
And he does that thing, with his eyes, at 90 degrees angle simultaneously
And if he makes an error – according to the bloke with his red line at least – he should be suspended or sacked
Right – I’ve got it
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fifa says in their rule book that the linesman in general play should be in line with the second last defender – the goalie is normally the last defender – but hey what do they know, maybe they should change this as it caused someone on twitter to draw a line on a picture on twitter to highlight that he linesman was not doing his job very well.
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tomorrow Arsenal u23’s are away to southamtpon u23’s, and we might very well see new signing Cohen Bramhall play his first game for Arsenal.
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i hope all those who watched the everton game today remember me saying that Tom Davies was just big for his age and was an average player who would never make it. I am the perfect judge of U23 players….not
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Eduardo
I’m a long way down the queue when defending prem officials but I think this guy should be pardoned. It doesn’t look inexplicable to me anyway.
He’s meant to stand in line with last defender (2nd rearmost defender according to an ex prem lino on twitter*) but looking at the picture here that would be pretty much impossible.
This came directly from a throw in which Valencia took and was played back to him immediately.
So what was he to do? Stand directly behind Valencia as he took the throw, or just to the left or right?
Replay shows quite well (bout 6.10) how it unfolds- Valencia throws ball and linesman, in line with him, moves away , presumably to try get a view.
To really be sure he messed up by being badly out of position I’d need to know protocol for throw ins when thrower is more or less in line with last defender. Standing behind someone taking the throw wouldn’t work but maybe he took a couple of steps too far.
* that ex-lino did slate him as well tho, mind. Suggested a ‘cull’ is needed.
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Rch, valencia is not the defender, he is on the attacking team, and a player can no be offside from a throw in, the linesman should be as near to in line, as he can be, with the second last defender, what the video shows is that the linesman goes the wrong way, the ball goes outfield and for an unknown reason the lino decides to head for the corner, if he had actually stood his ground it looked like he would have been in a much better position to judge any offside call.
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21 games played
chelsea on 52pts, Arsenal on 44pts
17 games to play, 51pts to play for,
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Richard Keys @richardajkeys 7h7 hours ago
Bravo has faced 52 shots this season and now conceded 21 goals
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real madrid’s 40 game unbeaten run has come to an end, seville beat them 2-1 tonight, to go withing 1 pt of them, but with RM having a game in hand. Barca are a point further back in third
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Arsenal being linked once again with Russian forward Aleksandr Kokorin, of Zenit, reports in Russia have quotes from an “Arsenal Scout”, claiming Arsenal are in for the 25 year old forward. Can’t see it happening myself, not with the amount of competition we have in forward positions
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the Arsenal scout quoted is Paul Kucherov
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ha ha ha, serge gnabry is not ruling out a return to arsenal this window or in the summer, or maybe to chelsea.
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LOAN REPORT – NWAKALI ASSISTS; CROWLEY MAKES DEBUT
by jeorge bird
Kelechi Nwakali played the whole game, provided an assist and was named man of the match as Maastricht beat Helmond Sport 2-0. Stefan O’Connor was an unused substitute.
Dan Crowley made his debut for Go Ahead Eagles as he came on in the 76th minute of the 3-1 defeat to AZ Alkmaar.
Jon Toral played 45 minutes in a friendly as Rangers were thrashed 4-0 by RB Leipzig.
Wojciech Szczesny kept a clean sheet as Roma beat Udinese 1-0.
Jack Wilshere played the full game as Bournemouth lost 3-1 to Hull City.
Calum Chambers played the entirety of Middlesbrough’s goalless draw with Watford.
Joel Campbell played the first half before being substituted as Sporting Lisbon drew 2-2 with Chaves.
Takuma Asano featured as a second-half substitute as Stuttgart drew 0-0 with Duisburg in a friendly.
Julio Pleguezuelo was an unused substitute as Mallorca drew 1-1 with Getafe.
Tafari Moore is likely to feature when Utrecht II take on NAC Breda tomorrow.
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isn’t it amazing that clubs still put up with this bullshit of a player not being able to retire from international football if his country do not agree. Liverpool at the moment can not play Joel Matip despite him saying he has retired from duty with Cameroon, cos Cameroon still called him up for their ACN squad, and he did not go.
Under current rules, a player once called up, if he refuses the call up, can not play for his club during the time his country wants him, so without clearance from fifa, matip can not play for lfc till cameroon are out of acn.
the same rule applies for players who claim to be injured
clubs pay the players wages, but its the tail wagging the dog
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 4m4 minutes ago
GERMANY the best football team in the world
Ozil, best German player 5 years out of 6
THE FUCKING END
DO ONE.
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