Arsenal 1st Team
Arsenal Football Club
Highbury House
75 Drayton Park
LONDON N5 1BU
Hi Guys,
I won’t be presumptuous. In the unlikely event any of you saw my open letter last week, either through the Arsenal media office or through your PR person, you may be aware that many of us Gooners have not given up on the season and are anxious to convey this to you. With 17 games to go, despite the usual nonsense from journos in mainstream media and the self-appointed experts in blogs and on twitter, an eight (8) point gap with Chelsea is not insurmountable.
I spent a lot of time in my last letter showing in the 1997/98 season, after New Year’s Day, Arsenal was dead and buried, in 5th place, 12 points behind Manchester United:
| Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Man United | 20 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 47 | 13 | 34 | 46 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 21 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 38 | 21 | 17 | 41 |
| Chelsea | 21 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 46 | 21 | 25 | 39 |
| Liverpool | 20 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 36 | 19 | 17 | 37 |
| Leeds United | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 23 | 7 | 35 |
| Arsenal | 20 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 35 | 23 | 12 | 34 |
By the end of the season Arsenal had made up the difference to beat United to the title by one solitary point:
| Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Arsenal | 38 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 68 | 33 | 35 | 78 |
| Man United | 38 | 23 | 8 | 7 | 73 | 26 | 47 | 77 |
| Liverpool | 38 | 18 | 11 | 9 | 68 | 42 | 26 | 65 |
| Chelsea | 38 | 20 | 3 | 15 | 71 | 43 | 28 | 63 |
A win against Leicester in late December 1997 was to be the start of a remarkable 48 points from 18 league games. You should take hope that yesterday’s win against Swansea is the start of a similar run by the class of 2017.
I would suggest that you face an equal if not slightly less of a challenge than the class of 1998. As of the completion of round 20 on January 4, the table read as follows:
| Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Chelsea | 20 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 15 | 27 | 49 |
| Liverpool | 20 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 48 | 23 | 25 | 44 |
| Tottenham | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 39 | 14 | 25 | 42 |
| Man City | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 41 | 22 | 19 | 42 |
| Arsenal | 20 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 44 | 22 | 22 | 41 |
That is only eight (8) points, compared to 12. Some people will try to convince you that things have changed; this time it is different because Chelsea have spent so much money on quality players. Bollocks. Let’s rely on the words of the Boss, when he described the competitive environment of 1997-98:
“I soon realized when I came to Arsenal that teams raise their levels when they play against us. I would watch opponents on video tape and then see a completely different performance when we played them because Arsenal is such a big club and other sides badly want to beat us.”
This was the exact scenario in Saturday’s match vs Swansea. In the first half they came at you with guns blazing, similar to Bournemouth in the previous PL game. But you guys reacted beautifully. Soaked up the pressure, limited their chances, gradually took control of the game, hit them on the counter and score goals repeatedly. Four (4) goals on the road and a clean sheet to boot. As the Boss said you were “relentless” to the end.
As most of you guys know from experience, things can change very quickly in football. In one round of matches, after 21 games, Arsenal has moved from 4th to 5th, snapping at the heels of both Liverpool and Tottenham who at 45 are only one point ahead. Trust me, none of those two teams immediately above us have the depth in quality players as the Gunners and sooner or later the cream will rise to the top.
Despite the margin of that victory over Swansea, the usual infantile, barely literate gaggle of ex-pros who pose as unbiased pundits in mainstream media were doing their best to belittle your chances. Now most of them, you think, having played and suffered against the Arsenal, would be intimately knowledgeable of recent 20-year history under Arsene Wenger.
- Arsenal has finished an average of 3rd; no other club except Manchester United has a better average.
- No other team has a better absolute deviation from their average league position than Arsenal at 0.985, meaning that on the average the club’s position will deviate by less than 1. United is the next best at 1.28.
- All other big -6 team have in 20 years finished lower than Arsenal; City fell away to as low as 47th, way down into the 3rd
- Arsenal has never finished less than 4th.
- Arsenal has never finished below Tottenham
Yet last Saturday, after you guys hammered Swansea, Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves and Robbie Savage came up with the lame trope that the top-six is more competitive than ever and Arsenal will fall out of the top-four. From the mouth of Scholes on BT Sport:
“I’ll go for Tottenham and Arsenal, fifth and sixth,
“Because I think the other teams are better than them.
“Simple as that, yeah.”
Knowing as we do the unbiased data of the past 20-years, this is truly the opinion of a simpleton, yeah.
Savage is no better:
“I’m going to say Man City because Man City fans absolutely love me and I’m going to go with Scholesy, Arsenal.”
Equally a part of the blind, stupid herd was Hargreaves:
“Yeah I don’t think Arsenal are going to make it this year,”
Those of us on the western side of the pond are similarly afflicted by this mindless punditry by, of course, ex-pros from the English game. We had to put up with the two Robbies of NBC-Soccer (Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe) who discounted your demolition of Swansea and kept bigging up Spurs as title contenders. These are guys who played for clubs which in their day were regularly thrashed by Arsenal. Uhm. Do you see a pattern here?
(A friend of mine on twitter (The Big Apple@lagrossepomme) described this as “Pret-a-Porter” analysis, meaning ready to consume, standardized opinions-analyses that follow the same narrative.)
Like us fans, you guys must be wondering how silly these guys feel when, less than 24-hours later, their favorite team Manchester City is routed 4-nil by Everton, giving another shambolic display of defending. How bad was it? The Toffees had 4 shots on target; all of them scored. As for league position, the only team that moved up and into the top-four over the weekend was The Arsenal. Ouch!
There is still a long way to go in this season but there are hopeful signs. As someone noted on twitter:
” Xhaka/Ramsey pivot have played 312 minutes together we’ve scored 13 (one every 24 min.) 2 against.”
In my opinion, while this is a small sample size it is a good omen. I am sure you guys will build on that. With Santi looking set to once again go under the knife, Elneny at the AFCON until late January and Coquelin recovering from injury, Rambo and Xhaka will simply have to grow up in the heat of battle. You all know they can’t do it alone in central midfield. Teamwork is essential to overcome any weaknesses in our set-up. Fortunately you are a stronger group than last year. At the same time last January you had to depend on good old Flamini (god bless his pointy-shouty efforts) while Elneny was feeling his way into the league.
Have no fear, Chelsea is due their run of bad games. Every club has a dip in this Premier League marathon of a season. Based on the data, if the injury gods can rein peace on us, you the class of 2017 will make this a real title-race. I am convinced of this, especially because you are under the leadership of the greatest manager in the league, whose been there, done that.
Up The Arsenal!
Positively yours
@shotta_gooner, The Contrarian
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Shotta,
No one can disagree with the data.
However I see Liverpool as a serious title contender, they have now played newrly all their away games vs the top 7, and have gained a decent points total. Another matter is due to the delay in completing their new main stand on time last summer they played a string of away games, now they have the major advantage of having more home games than anyone else to look forward to in front of the Kop.
We can’t look too far into the future in the crystal football of fate, let’s hope the boys can do a decent job against Burnley and Watford and then show the form at Stamford Bridge that delivered a 3-0 trashing of the Chavs earlier in the season.
City play Thurs next week, and Liverpool entertain Chelsea. is Costa going to bugger off to China? I don’t know but I doubt it.
Let’s see if Arsenal can significantly close the gap to the top of the table by the end of January, as you note it is only important to be at the top of the table come May.
See you all in Cardiff.
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Top work Shotta, and good to see at least some of the results go our way this weekend. Despite realising that a win for Liverpool yesterday would not be that helpful I couldn’t help feeling gut-wretchingly sick when the Tyler-styled Tower of Power secured a point. Honestly, that commentary was, as my son would have it, total cringe. Is it Manchester United I hate, or just Manchester United with Jose? I already hated everything about that club, and think at last they have found a perfect match made in hell. And I loathe Zlatan too, just for good measure.
But well done us, despite the fact that it obviously isn’t tactics to let a side come on to you and burn itself out, or to select a goalkeeper and take his training seriously. Aaron will have come on significantly (in a physical sense) for the last two weeks and his all-action style could well make a lot of difference over the coming weeks.
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ramsey said that we approached the swansea game with a very cautious attitude, that after recent games where we fell behind early on, it was felt that the first priority was to not concede, and especially not to concede first goal. He said this was done in the knowledge that we would get chances, and have the players to take the chances we would get. but hey, it suits some to believe we were outplayed by swansea and the 4-0 win only papers over the cracks.
by the way you will find that many of those that seen it as papering over the cracks, also think that Gabriel is now a better right back than Bellerin, Iwobi is awful, Ramsey is shite, Xhaka is a waste of money, Jack is way better than Santi, and that every manager is better than Wenger, and that Pep and Jose need to be given time and money before they can be judged.
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Sniper @clockendsniper 3h3 hours ago
Man United have won 2 games against a team in the top 10 in the premier league.
Spurs (home)
West Brom (away)
#6th
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http://meemee.tv/archive/2612 I’m on this talking shit after about 5 miutes
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Good afternoon Shotta and thank you for the Monday report – probably the winners of the Premier League will be the team that can be the most relentless, game after game picking up points, never losing, racking goal after goal after goal. Despite Pep’s towel throwing after his Merseyside trauma it is still a six way contest.
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@pedantic george pretty much stealing my rant
(Banned hash-tag) Right on my brother!
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pedantic george aka after the watershed George
Recommended 18
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DC, Liverpool have also dropped points against the likes of Sunderland.
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I listened to your chat, George. Very good. I like that you despise that fat, DT character as much as I do.
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Bramall makes his arsenal debut with the u23’s
AFCU23 team to face @SouthamptonFC: Keto, Johnson, Bielik, Sheaf, Bramall, Maitland-Niles, Reine-Adelaide, Nelson, Mavididi, Willock, Akpom
substitutes: Virginia, Dasilva, Zelalem, Dragomir, Nketiah
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pedantic george needs to change his handle to everyone is a fucking cunt george
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link to live stream of u23;s game
https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-01-16/video-premier-league-2-southampton-arsenal
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Can only agree, this team will be on the march in the second half of the season, get the feeling that’s when this squad will peak.
We have new players becoming more familiar with wengers game plans, some injured players coming back……and hopefully, not too many more injuries!
The msm are so entranced by the likes of Liverpool and Spurs, they ignore us, except to slag off the team of course. They ignore Arsenal at their peril, the squad is a lot better than many realise. Liverpool may be threats, no Europe, but also a lesser squad than us, injuries to key players could hit hard. Tottenham….praise lavished on them, they certainly seem to have their fans in the media, WOB, and from what I have seen, maybe the PGMOL, they are clearly heading for Leicesters unusual penalty count of last season. But as with Liverpool, the Tinies have a lesser squad compared to Arsenal, injuries to key players will eventually hit, and like all Bielsa inspired managers, Pochs teams tend to run out of steam seasons end. As for the Manchester teams, just think we are better and will go on to prove it. But, Chelsea are clearly a major threat.
I see some good months ahead for Arsenal
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FT: Southampton u23’s 1-3 Arsenal u23’s
southampton led at half time after scoring at a corner, but goals from Stephy Mavadidi, sub Eddie Nketiah and Chris Willock gave Arsenal a well deserved win. Southampton only troubled us from corners and freekicks. Nketiah is a very sharp striker, scored withing minutes of coming on for Chuba Akpom, and he gave the assist for the third goal too a few minutes later. Cohen Bramall came off on 80 minutes right after we went 3-1 up.
Maitland-Niles probably our best player, Nelson and Reine-Adelaide showed flashes of their skills.
I find it surprising that Rob Holding does not get game time in the U23’s, surely a game now and again would help him.
Zelalem an unused sub, his progress has stalled for now.
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one thing from the coverage of the u23’s game, you could hear the coaches from both sides shouting instructions at their players, where the southampton coaches could be heard shouting out all sorts of instructions, it seemed the Arsenal coaches only had one main set of instructions – “look after the ball, keep it”, I think that sums up how the club views the game and how we want to play.
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Crystal Palace F.C.Verified account@CPFC
SA: I think that’s negotiation between the chairman and the agent, but we appear to have an agreement with Arsenal [for Jenkinson].
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so maybe this is why Alexis has been a bit stroppy lately, he had this on his mind
Messi Minutes @MessiMinutes 5h5 hours ago
Alexis Sánchez video-called into a Catalan court today to admit to tax fraud of €983,443. Likely to receive a fine and suspended sentence.
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Alexis says he is happy at Arsenal.
That’s going to piss off loads of haters.
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Lukasz Fabianski has had his say on Alexis and Arsenal:
“They have quality all over so it is not only about one player. As a team they make Sanchez look good.”
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That as an amazingly strong team we put out there, most stand a chance of making it through to our first team squad and all will make top flight players.
Players like Nelson should’ t really be anywhere near the U23s at his age and as you go through the names they are streaming with talent, it makes it all the more annoying we are playing all of our remaining games this season behind closed doors at colney except for the game against city which is at the Emirates. However I dont believe it’s a good venue to see the youngsters.
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the breakdown by adrian clarke – swansea
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170116/how-we-turned-screw-on-swansea
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George was effen excellent on that Arsenal Autopsy. Spot on how most of social media especially Twitter is sucking the joy out of football.
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That was fun George.
One and half hours can be a bit long…
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Ian
I’d keep the u23’s as far away from earshot of cunts like DT and all his ilk,
People like them have managed to hound out a life long Gooner and decent reserve full back out of our club.
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I love Shotta, Shotta I love…..another superb letter to the boys…
Also, PG was a blast on the Arsenal Autopsy podcast, absolutely hilarious….
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Yeah, they said it was only an hour. I must have been on a roll
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its only half an hour if the swear words are take out,
have the malcontents responded on twitter george, they will think you have tourettes
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Steve Gooner @Merse10 4m4 minutes ago
Pep getting loads of stick but last time I checked he’s still ahead of Jose despite Man Utd “impressive form”
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good God, some of our idiot fan base are already writing off Cohen Bramall, after 83 minutes of action for the club, with our u23’s.
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Shame about Carl leaving. It would have been quite the fairytale if he had made it from fan to footballer for his boyhood club
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Reports that Bellerin, Gibbs and Coquelin are all back in full training and are available for Sunday’s game.
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Carl leaving, if so, good luck to him. He always gave his all, will never forget that cup goal he scored, doubt if he will either. I am sure he had some great memories at Arsenal.
Not a fan of Big Sam, but I think the way he plays the game might have a great effect on a young defender, plenty of organisation and protection which will give him a chance to gain confidence and hopefully thrive. The same with the Chambers loan at Boro.
Jenks, hope you go and prove we were wrong to let you go!
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Carl never scored a cup goal for us, he scored one goal in the league, v Norwich, and he went crazy, it was great to see.
Mandy I think you are referring to his shot v Reading in the 7-5 league cup win, he put the ball in the net after Theo had already scored and a defender knocked it out again, at the time it looked like Carl had got it, but the goal went down to Theo, the cameras showed he had scored.
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That may well have been the case Eduardo, but I’m almost certain that if the Corporal hadn’t put it in then the officials would not have called the goal.
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I think you are right on that, just saying officially carl scored one goal for us, that was v Norwich, think it may have been the last game of the 14 season, when Ramsey scored that wonder volley
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and the meltdown for today from the malcontents is
reports in the Times that Per Mertesacker has signed a new one year deal and might be loaned out this month to help him regain match fitness
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on the news about per, as much as the malcontents dress it up as him not being good enough, too old, waste of wages, etc etc, its clear that the main reason for their ire is that Per signing a new contract, much like Giroud, Kos and Coq, signing last week, is hinting at Wenger likely signing a new deal too, and with reports that his new deal will be a 2 year deal if not more, that all this is nothing more than confirmation if confirmation was needed, that a small but vocal movement, to get rid of him, has failed, repeatedly failed, utterly failed, and those involved are the failures that they so like to claim Wenger to be.
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‘IT WAS FAST… SO FAST!’
Cohen Bramall made his first appearance in Arsenal colours on Monday night as the under-23s beat Southampton 3-1 in Premier League 2.
The 20-year-old joined the club last week and played 83 minutes on his first outing for Steve Gatting’s side.
Southampton 1-3 Arsenal – Report
Having signed from Northern Premier League side Hednesford Town, he noted one notable difference from the games he had played previously.
“It was so fast… it was hard to get used to,” he told Arsenal Player. “I just need to do well now, keep training and keep getting better and better. Hopefully, I can get to where I need to be in the future.
“It’ll be a big challenge, because from Hednesford in the league I played in, it was pretty slow and I had a lot more time on the ball than I did here. It was fast and I need to be better and think quicker on the ball.
“I think in the next game that I play, I’ll be a lot more confident. I can trust my team-mates more and just hopefully get to know the players a lot better.
“It was amazing. I’m just happy that in my first game for Arsenal that we got the three points really.”
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170117/-it-was-fast…-so-fast-#85xFBLmqdbjwf2tP.99
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Jonathon Moss is ref for our game v Burnley on Sunday
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Eddy
By now we should know that there are plenty of idiots out there ready to comment on a player’s performance.
Prior to joining Arsenal Cohen Brammall was training two evenings a week. He is way below the required fitness level. He has not experienced the pre-season training regime of a top-flight club. His fitness will improve dramatically over the coming weeks.
Idiots do not take such obvious issues into account.
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Who is the U 23 Rightback?
Chiori Johnson?
Don’t know much about him, but he may be needed if we also sell Debuchy.
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Theo’s ankle ‘niggle’ is becoming very Arsenalesque.
Not ready for 2 more weeks apparently.
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Chori was another winger converted to full back, there was rumours he was leaving the club so can’t see him stepping up he is fast though.
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Good interview with Brammal. Thought he grew into the game a lot after a tough 1st half. It actually highlighted for me just how comfortable and smooth all our u23’s are with the ball.
Must admit, I enjoyed him wiping out one of theirs after their left back had hacked into Willock three times in quick succession. Brammal got booked (deserved), theirs didn’t when he really should have, but you can’t have it all.
It was an interesting game. 1st half I was troubled by the feeling there’s often something inefficient about our approach- i.e all those wonderful technical players, subdued after a promising start and bested by more basic aggressive (not ultra aggressive but certainly more than us) football and especially by high balls into the box (high quality crossing, in fairness)
But we stepped it up 2nd half, got a deserved equaliser after pressure, scored two lovely goals on the counter and ended the game in absolute control, showcasing lovely smooth passing skills to play out the final minutes.
There are so many in there who could make it and quite a few who could be very special. In terms of skill, I rate them higher than Wilshere’s brilliant all-conquering youth team.
I take nothing for granted,though; the last step is by a distance the biggest, some luck is needed, and it’s very unclear, to me at least, how a sublime talent like Willock will adapt to the 1st team challenge, especially to the punishment doled out by opponents.
He likes to receive the ball with a defender on him, then twist, turn and glide away, or go right up to his marker and tempt him before shifting the ball. Fantastic to watch and something which would bring an extra element to us or England if he can reach full potential.
A player any ref who loves the game should be looking to protect, a gem, but as was so clear last night, refs seem to want to protect the rights of the defender or tackler to put the honest boot into anyone daring to try that fancy stuff.
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Referees love Rose and Walker, ’nuff said.
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Mossy for Burnley ?
Since Jonny Boy started whistling in the top flight in 11/12 he has been in charge of AFC fourteen times, 12 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat.
That works out as 2.64 points per game, title winning form, in fact a 100+ point season.
Brilliant.
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Moss is the ref with the most match affecting mistakes for all of last season, according to that outfit keith hackett works for.
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