Gf60 writes:
With our season about to start later this week I’m sure that many remember moaning and groaning about some of our starts to previous seasons. Perhaps it would be fun to contemplate our navels for a moment and reflect that back before the war, Manchester City won the championship and were relegated the following season!
I mean how about this as a start to the season from the champions?
P10 W1 D2 L7 including no less than a 7-1 whipping at Sunderland.
Whoops! You thought I was referring to Man City? Ah sorry, slip of the two fingers. It was us actually in 1953/4.
Oh as a new boy at a school with distinct scum leanings, it was painful. In those days, our first win of the season, in about our 8th game, Chelsea away 2-0, meant so little! I mean a blind man and his dog expected to beat Chelsea.
Bad starts are not uncommon …we’ve had at least 6 with no more than 2 wins out of the first 10 games…. but which is the only club to have gone nearly 100 successive years in the top flight? Everton believe it or not come closest to the Gooners….63 odd years and after them, our nearest rivals will be……??
That’s your Quiz question.
And then there’s just straight old losing and /or not scoring. How about 7 straight losses in 1976/7? Even in our real hey days, in 1998/9, we had a wonderful early season spell with 3 goals in 5 games and that was the year after the double. Better still, 1 goal in about 8 successive games (It really is too painful to track that season back so forgive me) in one glorious Jan/Feb spell when we had been 1st or 2nd for most of the season and banging it in like sailors on shore leave.
So goal starvation is also not something that is uncommon to the faithful.
So keep the faith. Ye shall be rewarded.
Positively Arsenal 
Perspective is such a rare thing. Thanks GF60.
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The quiz question answer is Arsenal, Everton, Liverpuddle and then Manure, Anicoll, and if there is any suggestion that I googled it, having read your minor masterpiece, I would have to concur.
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Perspective isn’t that rare, Shotta — airplane pilots could not see where they are flying without windows!
Oh, wait — umm, maybe that is perspex – life is so complex, how is an innocent blogger supposed to manage! lol
Hope you enjoyed your holiday.
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Gf60 is the author Henry
I was looking back at a few pre season postings from earlier years on the blog this week. What a terrible disregard to tempting fate I showed. In future I shall stick to the tried and tested “one game at a time” mantra, with a first bash at CFC and then the hard work begins against the Foxes.
Like Rich I am baffled by the AFC game against Sydney and if it is or is not on Areseplayer as a live visual feed
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lacezette will wear the no. 9 shirt
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Arsene Wenger made light of this summer’s first enquiry about possible departures but he must have known it was coming.
With speculation over Alexis and Olivier Giroud flying around in the media, it was pretty much inevitable that the boss would be asked about them when he faced the media in Sydney on Tuesday.
Here’s how he responded:
on whether Alexis will stay…
That’s a question I didn’t expect today! The pressure starts again – the first press conference and we are there! We’ll see. The players have contracts and we expect them to respect their contracts, and that’s what we want. It’s a continuity of what I said at the end of last season. That’s what we will do.
on how tough is it to keep someone in the final year of their contract…
It is just [important] to make up your mind. The easiest way to manage a player in the final year of their contract is in his interest to do as well as he can. Nobody knows today if Alexis will be in the final year of his contract this season, because he can extend as well with us at the start of the season or during the season, so it is not necessarily the last year of his contract at Arsenal Football Club.
on Olivier Giroud…
We extended his contract last year so our resolution is to keep him here, because we extended his contract. He has a great value to the squad and I think as well he is a great lover of the club. He loves the club and has always been very determined to stay.
on whether he will keep all his strikers…
I don’t know yet. It’s always the same problem – when you have only one striker, people ask why you don’t buy another one. When you have two or three, they say that they will be unhappy because you have too much competition. That’s part of the job. We are in a job where we are very lucky to do what we love but as well we have chosen a competitive job, that means the players have to accept competition and my decisions as well, unfortunately!
Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/future-alexis-and-giroud#g8poKWpXWgVyT8Bx.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/future-alexis-and-giroud#xO0LMHf5VbyMt2UU.99
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The transfer window is open and, for the first time this summer, reporters have had the chance to ask Arsene Wenger about some of the players linked with us.
That opportunity came at a press conference shortly after we arrived in Sydney for the first leg of our summer tour. Here’s what the boss said:
on whether he’d consider more signings…
I am open to get some more signings, but it is not easy to find the players who can strengthen our squad, because we have top-quality players. There are two ways to improve always: analyse what we did well last season and what we did not so well and improve that, and then you can bring new players in. But at the moment, because we are in pre-season, it is very important for us to analyse well what happened last season and where we can improve. We have top quality in our squad, and at the moment I focus on that.
on Thomas Lemar…
That’s all speculation at the moment, there is nothing really concrete about any signing.
on whether we have bid for him…
He’s a player that we have looked at, but the rest is only speculation.
on Kylian Mbappe…
He’s a player who, when he gets up in the morning, can choose where he wants to go. There are not many players with that kind of luck, because he’s only 18 years of age and has the whole of Europe rolling out a red carpet for him.
on whether we are “rolling out the red carpet”…
Nobody can say they are not interested in a player of that calibre, because he has such immense quality at 18 years of age. All the clubs are open and interested in him.
Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/wenger-latest-transfer-rumours#kbfPp5k9iS04MSL2.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/wenger-latest-transfer-rumours#6zFCSVRFTixlOI2W.99
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Gf60,
Anicoll the Truthful, has pointed out that you are the Post author deserving of credit.
The ‘Posted By’ at the top always catches me out — but the high quality essay should have warned me — ooh er, matron — that is not to say my liege, Anicoll, does not type some exquisitely formed words. lol
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Anicoll,
You obviously do not pore over my every comment – otherwise you would have seen my message to Eddie – who ignores my musings also – but as I understand it, Arsenal Player, for which you are probably already registered, seems to indicate all the pre-season games will be shown via video — the main concern for me is that they are less than clear whether or not the games will be shown ‘live’ (I think so) or on a delay.
I know not who administers the Arsenal.com website, but if I can be a teensy bit sniffy, can I say they could benefit by going back to school, and learning better how to communicate with the great unwashed, and rather simple – like me. lol
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Ive looked at the Arseplayer H and, as you say, whether it is audio or live visual streaming is formidably difficult to work out. If it is on live on Arseplayer then I cant see why Premier would pay money to show it ?
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https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/884714675119824896/IGA3O_Fj?format=jpg&name=600×314
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re last post – game on thursday is live on arsenal player, 10.45am show starts
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Remember Everton don’t count as they should of been relegated instead of Sheffield Utd when Segars took a Bing to let in goals on the last day of the season.
I always thought Villa were right up there with time spent in the top division
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A “Bing” ?
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Sorry – my Resistance was low Ian
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listen carefully i will say this only once
but that was funny anicol
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http://www.gunnerstown.com/arsenal/author/invinciblog/
If you believe Wenger is a Failure, you’re Deluded. Here’s why.
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Gary Speed more expensive tan Zidane eh ?
Well he could do it on a wet Wednesday night in Stoke I suppose
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only 21 years and the total summer outlay is now matched by the cost of lukaku
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That is a sad reflection on the way footie finances have gone Eddie.
I do not blame the players for cashing in while they can – greedy bar stewards, (lol) but that has forced the clubs to respond in kind, and ultimately it is the fans who pay – not just in the cost of stadium tickets, but for those millions of us forced to rely mainly on pay TV subscriptions the cost of that has probably risen in line with the average increase in transfer fees.
[I liked your ‘moaning bing’ too, Anicoll.] lol
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Lacazette has taken the No. 9 shirt, Lucas had now gone to no. 28 and that leaves Campbell without a squad number.
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Eddie,
How accurate is that 1996 transfer list? I know Paddy Vieira joined us in 1996 and cost something like £3.5m – so he should be on the list too.
If I am correct – it just shows what a steal he was especially compared to Shearer and Nellie Ravanelli, at £15m and £7m respectively.
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Henry a lot of the transfer fees as usual are best guess, as most clubs never reveal full details, as we know with Arsenal its “long term contract for an undisclosed fee”. Only time its accurate is when club accounts reveal something, and that can only be spot on if only one player signed
much the same was as a players wages are pure guess work coming from an overall wage spend.
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Any Red Member looking for a Community Shield ticket they are on sale and plenty available – just £25
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That’s fine Eddie, and I did not mean to appear snippy. It’s just that I did not have a clue about any of the transfers on the list, and it was both interesting and surprising — but the only one I would have known from that year was Patrick, and I could not show off because he was not on there!
Infamy – infamy – you’ve all got it infamy!
Fancy Anicol being a school governor – that’s probably why he is usually so calm and collected, and ….. pinches bloggers’ dictionaries! lol
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“Any Red Member looking for a Community Shield ticket they are on sale and plenty available – just £25”
This is the first year where tickets have trickled down to the hoi poloi and of course I have a previous engagement for 6th August and cannot take advantage!
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anicol at workd
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Eddie,
Are you suggesting that our esteemed Anicoll is a drag artist? I must say he makes a very handsome Head Mistress/Governor, and still has a splendid head of hair – or is that someone else’s.
Hope he has gone for high tea, and does not know you are letting his little secret out! lol
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Splendid head of hair is perhaps an exaggeration
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Cheers gf60, -thanks Ian for keeping us going with all your articles this summer. Cheers also to George for the article link.
James R signed to Bayern.
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Arsenal reveal their new cup kit in the morning, around 7.30 uk time, from the puma promo it looks like the leaked black kit with pink trim is accurate.
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http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/alexis-sanchez-will-definitely-be-at-arsenal-next-season-per-mertesacker-a3585291.html
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I think the Arsenal U18 squad has been training out in Germany.
The u23’s play Brighton on Friday.
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anyone watch Wenger’s press conference today, when talking about Lemar and Mbappe, especially Lemar, I felt he could not contain his smiles, something that we usually don’t see unless a deal is close. Also the fact that he did not shoot down the links suggests that we are in serious talks for the lad.
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http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal/arsenal-in-australia-aaron-ramsey-meets-sydney-fan-who-credits-him-with-saving-his-life-showing-him-large-tattoo-of-welsh-hero-1-5101307
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/07/11/exclusive-liverpool-accused-falsifying-document-heart-tapped/
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found it a bit odd today that in the press conference the journos only interested in Alexis contract situation and if Giroud would stay. Ozil and Oxlade-chamberlain not asked about. This despite the same journos running off at the mouth for weeks about them, especially ox.
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For those who enjoy their nostalgia straight into the blood supply BT2 Sport showing the Big Match from 24th October 1976
Rangers Sunlun – Eddie Kelly Frank McLintock for the Hoops and John Hollins – the School End at Loftus Road – drowning in reminisce
And lo and behold McLintock scores the opener ….
And next up is Leicester Arsenal !
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Ready, willing and looking forward. Enjoying Lions, Cricket, tennis, but no sporting fix like Arsenal.
Wenger clearly has a trick or two up his sleeve by the sound of that press conference
And despite media power of suggestion attempts, not afraid of Everton , doubt if Wenger is either
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Leicester 4 Arsenal 1
Pat Howard, Trevor Ross and a young Liam Brady having a right mare
I’d leave it
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Ed
Not feeling too confident about Lemar, having foolishly built hopes up quite high on the strength of all the talk.
It’s Monaco having three others- Fabinho, Bakayoko and Mendy- who are being pursued by richest clubs which worries me. I’d guess if any of them go it makes a transfer for their others big players, Lemar included, less likely.
Feels like Utd, City, Chelsea are much more likely to just bung another 5-15 million on a bid to satisfy Monaco and push a deal through.
Still on transfers : bemused yesterday to see Bayern have paid less for Rodriguez’s services for two years than Burnley have for permanent signing of Jack Cork.
Like Tielemans and Ginter, it all seems very reasonable compared to deals involving premier league teams
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anicoll5
I was gutted we sold Frank Mclintock too soon,he was a super player
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Mesut Ozil says it is “definitely” his preference to stay at Arsenal.
The Germany international has one year remaining on his contract and, as a result, there’s been plenty of speculation on his future.
But Mesut is keen to remain at Emirates Stadium.
“It is definitely my preference to stay,” he said. “It is such a great club and I have always said that I feel very good at Arsenal.
“Once everyone is back in London we will sit down and discuss about the future.
“For now the most important thing is our pre-season and getting through the tour, training and getting fitness. When I’m back in London, we will sit down and discuss.”
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/ozil-latest-my-future#2tawRUckvZMAmQwo.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/ozil-latest-my-future#I86AQqximpG7CXGx.99
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so the 3 main english journos covering the arsenal tour are all saying “Arsenal more than confident” that the signing of Lemar will be done. £45M+, 5 year deal.
now maybe they were told something by AFC, or they could just be going on the comments from AW yesterday especially his mannerisms, you know the little smiles and the twinkle in his eye.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/tottenham-hotspur-spurs-transfer-news-manchester-united-city-arsenal-liverpool-different-a7837786.html
We may sign Lemar, but Spurs refusing to pay big money for anyone, Lemar included, is because they are doing it different and better than anyone else in England. All the things we were vilified and laughed at for, is now virtue.
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Shard I too am shocked and amazed that such Tottenham supporting hacks would act in such a biased way. Who could have predicted such a thing?
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