Good evening Positive fans,
I watched the best performance of the season we put together over 90 minutes. Very few clubs put together such a thorough defensive performance at the Bridge and our game without the ball was excellent today. Mustafi did not put a foot wrong all day and left Morata a petulant heap, Kosc was tidy and rarely under pressure and Nacho cleaned up whatever crumbs his partners dropped. A well deserved and hard earned point – more satisfying because the scarfists and the ‘experts’ had marked us down for a Good thrashing – idiots one and all.
Looking slightly forward and across Hector’s return to his position as the best young full back/ wing back in the PL takes another step. It was at this ground his progress was derailed. And the Bosnian eh ? First name on the team sheet at the moment.
Congratulation to Alan Smith for the most inane comment I have ever heard, to the effect that he hoped “someone had had a word” with Aaron and Xhaka After the Anfield game because if no one had “it’s criminal”.
No Alan the players and the coaches and the manager sat round in total silence for 3 weeks. Very energetic from both, controlled the midfield after the first 20 minutes.
Up front two first half chances, Danny’s header and Laca’s rebound, both difficult but on another day …..?
For a manager who I think is very good at his job Conte allows his players to plead insanity for too often. Luis is a f******* liability.
No complaints with Oliver – always a tricky game to control and at times the home side tested his good nature.
Overall a point was a fair result.
Positively Arsenal 
can’t wait for the pundits on match of the day to say “high, late and dangerous, endangering an opponent, but should not have been a red”
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Andy has copied my micro blog style, I think I’ll sue
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Knocking it out between the 4th and 5th innings in the Bleachers at Yankee Stadium George
Fucking tourist that I am
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Hugely encouraging result; as the newbies continue to bed in at an impressive rate we will increasingly take an unbreakable grip on the league. I was especially impressed and delighted with the performance, given our less than welcome date night with Cologne recently. And I must confess I still love Wenger’s unerring ability to make the pundits eat their words on a regular basis, making fools of our ‘fan’ detractors along the way.
Roll on.
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Wonderful work Andy Nic. Need to get going on my opus.
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Andy, never mind PG… at least an A for effort and even A- for length. LOL
The bottom line of the game was addressed, although I heard so many players played so well, they had to have been to have shut out the Chelsea attack and even hit the bar so…
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That’s what I’m talking about. Excellent performance. Thought we were the better team overall. Every player impressed today. Keep this up and we can win the league.
I think Lacazette is going to a great one for us…there is just something very special about him.
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I gave Xhaka slot of stick after the pool game suggesting it was his worst performance in an ARSENAL shirt as everything he tried went wrong, well today I thought he was immense building the platform for Aaron’s MOTM display. If these two continue with that form we will do very well this year. To make conte change his plans and put on an extra midfielder
is a great complement.
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I don’t want to blame the Ox, likely also more about the approach of the end of the transfer window… the Liverpool game was off for so many players, they just seemed moody or distracted… happily my stream broke and I ended up not watching much of the match… clearly I didn’t miss much!
Am glad that with one really bad performance off our back, the team can only get better from there for a while to come…
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Arsenal play Doncaster on Wednesday in the CC, we are likely to see the seven subs from today, Wilshere might get a start too, Chambers and Holding contenders to start if fit. Young lads like Nketiah and Nelson likely to be involved too.
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And Ozil might play.
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George’s old micro blogs Get Rodgered now have serious competition from In the Nicoll of Time.
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I doubt we will play Ozil v Doncaster, he is carrying an injury, why risk him, Alexis needs game time, and needs to play his way back into the starting 11.
Ospina
Holding Mertersacker Chambers
Nelson Wilshere Elneny Maitland-Niles
Walcott Giroud Alexis
maybe Debuchy in place of Nelson, or play DaSilva at LWB and put AMN at RWB
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everything you need to know about Paul Merson’s football knowledge
Paul Merson on Nacho Monreal: “He wouldn’t get into my team if I was picking a combined XI against a bottom-half team.”
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As I would imagine the wingbacks will be deployed quite far forward even coming centrally I to attacking midfield Jeff could start.
Depending on who is going to take Danny’s place next week could determine an alternate player to start against donny. Alexis may not play at all.
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Ed, we all know merse’s is brain-dead the players used to take the piss out of him when he was in the team. He is a pundit purely for entertainment and not expertise reasons, you always need a clown in the line up.
I think Alonso is good however Spain have a pretty good side apparently and they seem to prefer Nacho.
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Really enjoyed it. Spell before half time (25-25?) was seriously good.
Decision-making all over pitch was v sound throughout game, including little things like Hector just putting it softly into touch when totally hemmed in at one point.
Loads of pluses and things to enjoy, including Iwobi giving a taste of what he can bring now and especially later on to that role. Xhaka and Ramsey performing well. Defence wins day for me though.
Excellent together and masses of top notch individual work. Games where we concede early and chase the game give a very misleading impression of their real abilities as defenders. Today they got to show their stuff.
Really caught my eye in first quarter just how cautious Chelsea were in build-up. They looked as though they are conditioned in all areas of field, other than final third perhaps, to think first of all about whether losing the ball would be dangerous.
In that stage a big contrast was evident with us as, despite playing mostly well and not making many mistakes, our extra willingness to try pass through the pitch meant they nearly got at us a few times from possession lost in our half. Almost happened a few times with Bellerin playing straight passes inside.
Anyway, I don’t want us to become as conservative as Chelsea and virtually every other prem team are now at heart, with the only difference being the quality/ $ of players each team has; but I do want to see us improve our decision-making in that regard, smell danger a little better, or at least for the big games where conceding first is often a killer.
After the first 25 we seemed to do just that. It may only mean just smacking it away or hitting a long ball with little chance of success a handful of times, and that’s what we did.
Massively encouraged by what I saw today in an intense enjoyable game of football. Only slight downer for me, aside from injury worry for Danny and maybe Kolasinac (can’t rule out that guy playing on while injured), is I’ve just realised our cup game may well not be televised.
Was really looking forward to getting to watch us again in a few days with a lot of different players, including youngsters, getting some game time.
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Superb performance from all concerned, hope they keep this up.
Not sure what our Chelsea loving ex player has or hasn’t said after that, but unless it is humble pie, all I can say is Shut It Merson, and the same to any other pundit out to do down this team and manager, especially those who wore the shirt
We could have easily won that
Early days, but any word from those media sheeple pundits who said we should be scared of Everton? looks like we should be more scared of Newcastle
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I knew Antonio Conte was going to be found out sooner or later. Also, I’m glad Arsene has adopted a 3-4-3, which I’ve been wishing he’d had for years.
If Aaron Ramsey keeps playing like this, Barcelona are going to ask to pay 200 million euros for him.
The table will sort itself out in the next couple of weeks. We’ll be within three or four of the top two in a couple of weeks.
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“It was a good, open game with both teams trying to win,” added Conte. “Every game against Arsenal is always very tough. We knew very well what type of game we would face. Both teams are great teams – it’s a good draw.”
So how is it the official’s fault? likely cos u guys have been employing the dark arts and then again, maybe there would have been more sending offs if not that the officials were restraining themselves!
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“Overall a point was a fair result.” I have to disagree with this one sentence Andy…thought we really deserved 3 points.The defence and midfield were excellent and when Shkodran “scored” like every gooner I was lauding him to the heavens…and then, oh bloody hell, oh bloody,bloody,bloody hell. The lino got it right. Some days there just ain’t no justice, Keep the faith.
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testing
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Nacho Monreal
Football team dynamics especially at the highest level particularly, reduced to the much talked about ‘Leaders’ but in a severely simple terms.The subtle differences are never really explained .
The teams ‘Technical Leader’ has been missing for quite sometime and has a massive effect on the team, as just having him train with the team is vital to keep standards set high.
But “We have luck” (Tenemos suerte) as the say in language of our Technical Leader, because his representative Monreal is setting standards that are not really being considered by MSM.
He has been the most consistant player we have had since his worst spell for Arsenal early last season. His leadership by deed , encouragement,passion and determination, should be recognised.
What a player I called him the new Peter Simpson a while ago, but I have to say he maybe better than Simpson.
There has been some complaints that he is will be offered another contract, I say yes please with improved terms
What a player,
What a leader!
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The media imbiciles are using Luiz’s overhead kick attempt (not a yellow for me) as yet another excuse to excuse Mane. Not having it.
Also this is Chelsea’s fifth or so red card against us, not including the assault on Hector. They do have a history of violence which the FA have not penalised sufficiently.
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I think its only those who think that when you play 3 CB’s it should mean 3 guys six foot four, built like a brick wall, who head and hoof away any ball that comes in around them, that can not understand Monreal in the 3, they have failed to see that the better clubs who play 3 at the back, have at the very least 1 ball playing CB, some have 3 ball playing CB’s, most have normally 2. With 3 CB’s two of them normally have to be very mobile, after all they are now expected to cover out wider. Its why Arsenal have put Koscielny to the right of our 3, he is more mobile than Mustafi, has more recovery speed, same with Nacho. As a converted left back, he is comfortable when the attacker takes him out wide, he is happy in a foot race too. And of course extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet.
think of some of the best CB’s in a 3 down the years, Maldini, Costacurta, Baresi, none were Six foot four brick walls, Maldini was a superb left back, Costacurta barely six foot, Baresi was only five foot nine.
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For me Luiz’s overhead kick should have been a red, it was clearly endangering an opponent, was careless, maybe even reckless as in the area he done it he knew defenders there who would be trying to head it.
Some silly pundits are saying if reds given for that then we would never see an overhead kick goal again, which of course is childish rubbish, most overhead kick goals are scored when the attacker does the kick in lots of room, with his boot well away from the defenders face,
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WWWB at 10:11 am
Nacho as our technical leader in the absence of his great Malaga partner, the peerless Santi Cazorla? You may very well have scored a bullseye.
I was absolutely impressed by him in yesterday’s game. On twitter, during and after the game, I kept nattering repeatedly how great a player our Nacho is. Here are his Chelsea numbers according to Squawka:
100% aerial duels won
90% pass accuracy
3 clearances
2 interceptions
1 chance created
What impressed me most was his leadership, his nous, i.e. that cheaply used adjective by journos, his football intelligence. He knew when to push up, when to dribble, when to drop back and cover and when to make a cheeky foul. He was absolutely committed, showing not a trace of fear. I said on twitter he is a proper defender. But, today, after your post, I will go further and say he is a proper footballer. No praise is too high. He showed the way yesterday.
PS: No wonder Xhaka never seemed isolated and vulnerable at at any moment with minders behind and in front of him. No wonder Ramsey could do his thing. Team performance but Nacho deserves a lot of credit.
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I too was really impressed with the overall performance of our boys. They really turned things around and we can go on a good run till the end of October (at least).
Ramsey, along with Xhaka has been controlling the 2 PL games since Liverpool with great ease, maturity and position discipline, yet the knuckle draggers still say, “yes Ramsey played but…”
Its not even that I would want them to double-back, because just like Paul Merson, they are beyond stupid with their binary football opinions.
Pleased with the 1 point shared but I think it flatters Chelsea.
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the thing is, the ASB will not admit that Monreal is a top level CB, as that would be to firstly admit he is a CB, and how can they continue to blast AW for picking a Left Back at CB, if they admit that the guy is a CB and a good one at that. Its just another one of their soundbites like Xhaka is a liability, Ramsey is a glory hunter(this one is really funny, as they don’t like he actually scored two cup final winners, so actually brought glory to AFC), Theo is brainless, Iwobi is useless, Giroud is a plank, Cech is finished, Mustafi is rubbish, Koscielny is over rated, Ozil is a coward, Wenger has been left behind by the modern game. The list is endless in fact, they can make one up for every occasion.
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Wolfsberg have sacked Jonker and his coaching staff, which means that Freddie Ljungberg might be on his way back to a role at the AFC academy. When he left with Jonker, Arsenal allowed it on the promise that he would return to Arsenal in the future. FL was highly regarded when coaching our U15/16 teams.
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This is a tweet from Guardian journos Barney Ronay
“Anyway, I haven’t jumped on the train. I’ve been making fun of Arsenal for years. I built the train”
something we all here at PA have known for years, mainstream media have an anti Arsenal agenda, now and again like Ronay today, they admit to it. But still so many Arsenal fans will not admit there is an anti AFC agenda.
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Eds
In order to do that they’d have to admit why it is that a club that won’t sign Bony for +£30M (£50M in this summer’s market?), the only top flight club to sack a manager for taking by today’s standards a tiny bung, why such a club is not beloved by the football agents and the people that they pay do to their PR
Why is these Expert plundits like the upper class Partdrige-Ronay (Alan’s second cousin thrice removed) don’t ever have articles on the agent’s or agencies that have so much influence in the sport? Not forgetting betting companies etc although the Labour Party had something to say on the matter just last week this story is apparently not a story for your average football hack or lesser spotted Partdrige – the 1919 scandal and its impact on US sports and officials is only an observable record going back 98 years…(that’s nearly a centuary).
We all know the answer.
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I haven’t tried to read into anything excreted by that pompous toad in many a year.
That would be like the torture of listening to demented or lying plundits who have played professional sport not being able to tell the difference between a roundhouse kick (with studs down) and a sprinting flying leaping kick (plus studs up). Why do they lie? I don’t know or care. But they are most definitely: bullshitting their audience.
Swerve and avoid.
Looking forward to listening to Adrian Clarke’s take on the Football.
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fins you mention the 1919 betting scandal in US sports, well there was one in English football in 1964, (seen 10 pro footballers jailed for match fixing) but you would never know it, what with the way its been almost written out of the games history, in fact the media when reporting about it happening in other countries always tell us that such a thing could and would never happen in the english game
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Eds there was also a spot betting affair – not involving top level cricketers within the UK but one invlolving lower league players only.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_English_match_fixing_scandal
“The shadow minister for sport, Clive Efford, said that the government had failed to do enough to help the governing bodies of sports address the issue of match fixing.[7] Efford said that the government had voted against his amendments to the Gambling Bill that would have “fixed the anomaly that exempts sports spread-betting operators from the requirement to pass on details of suspicious betting activity to sports governing bodies.”
Four years later and it’s still not a story for the toad and his fellow slimers. But we can observe that the Un-neo Labour Party to carry on asking the question which the lesser Partdriges don’t have the footballs to ask
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Eds I use the hundred year old reference which created the salary cap culture in US sports as it puts the feeble gibberish of hacks like the one you refer to into the proper context.
Why they lie about how their industry works, I don’t know or care.
Swerve and avoid.
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Kwame Ampadu Arsenal’s U18 manager, was not a happy man after our U18’s let a 3-0 half time lead slip and for us to lose 4-3 to Man Utd U18’s at the weekend and he made his feelings clear when he said in an interview with Arsenal.com after the game
“when, this season, we have been talking about this particular group of boys we have been talking about mentality, we’ve been talking about drive and desire, realizing what the standards are at Arsenal Football Club and recognising what it is you need to be to be a professional footballer and we are going to have to keep talking about that, because that is the qualities that is lacking.”
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Ed and Fins:
I always saw Barney Ronay as simply a high class prostitute serving the top end of the market. The high flown prose is only a cover for his blatant whoring on behalf of everything that is wrong with English football; (1) its capture by agents and their allies who are sucking clubs dry via overpriced transfers and related fees, (2) the continued deification of everything that is backward and anachronistic in regards to how football should be played(imagine English commentators, pundits and journos still voice the canard that Ozil is a luxury player), and (3) the gradual takeover of the game by betting companies, a subject Ronay and the Guardian hardly touch.
Fins advice is well taken: “swerve and avoid”.
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Just found out Barney Ronay is one person, I always thought it was two members of west life
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Fins. I know you aren’t but the definition of apathy is “Don’t know, don’t care.”
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Watched the second half against Cologne again. Great turnaround. Fucking travesty how Giroud was so under-utilised by his team mates.
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Gf60
Two stories on Aunty Bleeb caught my eye:
“Because we’re not all inspiring, we’re not all ethical.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/41253174
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Then there was press release made in conjunction with this well known ethical people at the FA ha ha ha
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41311976
Quite a weird little article.
Almost as odd as the stunted attacks against the Arsenal from the likes of dear old Barnay.
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A treat of a blog coming up soon from Shotta.
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New post up.
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