I’m afraid the new blogging season is off to an inauspicious start, with our mercurial maestro, Stew Black, out with a slight niggle. So rather than Stew’s beautiful prose you are stuck with my wit and repartee.
I have no idea what sort of an atmosphere will be generated for a Friday night opener, but surely, free from any negative hangovers, it should be good?
The notable absentees are of course Santi – goodness knows when we will see him again – Laurent Koscielny (suspended for 2 more games) and Sanchez (tummy niggle). I’m led to believe that Per trained yesterday, so I expect he will come in for Laurent, partnered by Holding and Monreal.
It appears that Hector is going to be first choice as right wingback so that leaves Arsene to decide between AOC and our new tank, Sead Kolasinac. I believe he will go with Sead.
In midfield it will be Xhaka and ElNeny. Rambo was the standout player in pre-season but has had a slight calf strain, and although he too trained yesterday, I think Arsene will be ultra careful with him.
And now to the front three. Well your guess is as good as mine. It could be any number of combinations. Perhaps Ozil behind Giroud and Lacazette? Or Ozil and Iwobi/Welbeck behind Giroud/Lacazette? Or….. well AOC could feature too…….oh God, I give up.
Anyway, its Arsene’s problem and he is the best placed to choose. Whoever it is, I can’t wait to sit down and soak it in. I’m hugely looking forward the the new season, and although I hope Arsenal can win the league I will savour every game regardless of previous results of ours or our competitors.
Oh, we are playing Leicester City, and lest we forget, they were champions the season before last, so any thoughts of a cakewalk should be banished right now.
I look forward to seeing you all in the comments section regularly throughout the season. Please make the effort, because without you, the blog is nothing. Well, almost nothing, there’s still me in my splendour, but you know what I mean.
Andy will be here tomorrow so its back to the comfort zone.
CARMON ARSENAL CARMON (we miss you Frank).
Positively Arsenal 
self inflicted again, give the ball away, lcfc corner, and vardy flicks it in, defending has been shite,
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…time for Mustaphi and Iwobi?
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66 minutes
Ramsey on for Elneny
Giroud on for Holding
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time for Giroud and Ramsey!
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bellerin seems to be playing wide left
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15 minutes left,
welbeck off, walcott on
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Come on Theo, give us a couple of goals.
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Ramseyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
the selfish whore scores a wonderful goal
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about ten minutes to get a winner here
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Girouddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
what a header, just moments after lacazette had almost scored from a giroud pass
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he heeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
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that was Giroud’s 50 Emirates stadium goal
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5 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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commentators butt hurt cos AFC 3rd goal the ball ran down ozil’s arm in the build up, but the lcfc player blocking the ball with his hand at face height in the penalty area was meaningless
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I think MikeDean enjoyed that game.
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Top night out! 3-2 down 4-3 up! Magic stuff!
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yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss FT: 4-3 to the Arsenal
my God we made it hard for ourselves, but goals from Lacazette, Welbeck, Ramsey and Giroud won out in the end.
our defending was woeful, and our passing was off at times, but we still created loads of chances.
come on you gooners
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The experts tell us Chamberlain doesn’t have a position.
Does it matter when he plays that well in several different ‘positions’ during the 90 picking up the motm bauble in the process?
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We must hold on to Giroud…because I LOVE GIROUD…
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Wengerball @ArseneStyle 4m4 minutes ago
2′ ⏱ AFC 1-0 LCFC
5′ ⏱ AFC 1-1 LCFC
29′ ⏱ AFC 1-2 LCFC
45′ ⏱ AFC 2-2 LCFC
56′ ⏱ AFC 2-3 LCFC
82′ ⏱ AFC 3-3 LCFC
85′ ⏱ AFC 4-3 LCFC
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With our fist choice defence we would have dispensed with LCFC with ease.
Having said that LCFC are a sturdy, well organised and feisty side. No pushovers. This makes this a good win.
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Larry, he’s not bad is Europe’s no.1 targetman
Ramsey? Hehe.
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9/10 entertainment
Fucking murder to watch though
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this comment sums up the asb, they haven’t got a fucking clue
“Giroud, Ramsey and Walcott are supposed to make a difference? This is why Wenger is so past his expiration date.”
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our defending was woeful, especially bellerin and Holding, thank god our attacking play had enough moments of magic to make up for it. Lacazette very good league debut, Ramsey with a worldie, and Giroud with one of those power headers in off underside of the bar that he is so very good at.
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has Jamie Vardy told anyone yet that he has no regrets about turning down Arsenal.
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Arsenal with 27 shots, with 10 on target, 4 goals
leicester with 10 shots, with 3 on target, 3 goals
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ah jamie carragher butt hurt that arsenal 3rd goal allowed cos ball hit ozil’s arm in build up
funny the no penalty for handball is being overlooked.
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Surely the ball landed on Özil’s arm which was in a “natural” position by his side, therefore, not a deliberate handball.
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Carragher describing why Giroud is a top, top, class striker. He demonstrated such strength and control to score. Fucking brilliant.
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is there some fucking reason why sky are not in a studio, this pitch side lark is bullshit.
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no no no GP, that does not come into it at all, he is an Arsenal player so as Jamie Carragher said – “deliberate handball”
and the LCFC player with his hands up at face height was not seeking an advantage, well that and it was against Arsenal, so of course no penalty.
the media bias against Arsenal is so fucking real, and yet so many gooners deny it
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Wenger – we conceded “avoidable goals, we have to work on that”
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Top of the league
Can’t see us letting it slip this season
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Wenger admits that he was willing to allow Giroud to leave this summer, as he deserves to be first choice, but our Ollie loves it here and thankfully has decided to stay.
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Wenger said of course he is happy with a 4-3 win, “after being 3-2 down with 20 minutes to go”.
Neville says he would have been happy (as a manager) to have only been 3-2 down with 20 to go, ha ha ha
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our four goals
lacazette scores, elneny assist
welbeck scores, lacazette assist
ramsey scores, xhaka assist
giroud scores, xhaka assist
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must mention Kolasinac’s piece of skill near the end of the game, that turn was awesome
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Bill Dithers @WengerBoy1 41m41 minutes ago
Great to see Ramsey score like that. Extremely difficult chance that he was taking for fun in 13/14. Exactly what we need from him.
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only ones more upset than sky/media at the Arsenal win tonight are the attention seeking brigade, fucking clowns the lot of them.
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WENGERBALL CAME IN.
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Wenger: “We had 70% possession & 27 shots. Leicester had 3 shots.”
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https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=giroud&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=nvi&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE-4axkdDVAhVrJcAKHdpRA1kQ_AUIEygD&biw=1024&bih=649&dpr=2#imgrc=AJj27aqYKqp3RM:
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Woohoo what a game to start the season! I was exhilarated, and then I almost died a few times, and then I was euphoric. Sounds like the way the season usually goes.
I’ll say this: we have some bench. How wonderful it is to be able to switch up the team/formation like that when we’re pushing for an equalizer. And then to watch them go just as hard for the win. A draw wouldn’t have done it for those players. It’s a wonderful continuation of the way we ended last season.
Lots of misplaced passes puzzled me today, but we’re still finding our feet. Hector didn’t seem quite himself yet, and Rob is a young player, so ups and downs are to be expected. Mesut looked gassed, I hope his ankle is ok. But, I don’t want to think about any of that now. What a marker to lay down for the new season. And my boy got a goal, and a beauty it was. I’m a happy girl.
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Season defining win.
Never in doubt.
Unbelievable belief is back in the team, over coming and one players errors, the willpower of the team dominates.
Wengerball with Kettlebells
The rest of the league are gonna get so fucked by us .
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edu, welbs goal was assisted by kola. om giroud, that was why i was mad at those suggested he ought to leave because he is not likely to start and because of world cup. giroud love arsenal unlike those who we handed the team over to and they in return fail to renew their contracts
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alabama did you notice how Ramsey after he scored was mid celebration when it seemed to hit him that game had to be won, there was this moment where you could see it dawn on him, and it was feck this celebrating lark, lets get on with it and win the damn thing.
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i wa sworried about holding all pre season because he looked rusty. i hope he gets over tonight disaapointment and return stronger. btw i’ll like wenger to give chambers a chance in the team. i still believe 3 at the back is still the way to go but the personnels need to improve.
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P.I.M.P. @PoznanInMyPants 3m3 minutes ago
How big a brain must you have to compute those changes under that level of pressure.
343 –>4231
Move LWB->RB. RWB->LB. LCB->CB. CF->LW.
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