A guest post from @LaboGoon
When Arsène Wenger changed formation in the final two months of last season we went on an incredible run. There was balance between offense and defense, and with all the players playing their part it was a thing of beauty man. Those who stood tall were Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Xhaka, Alexis, Giroud and Özil.
Following that Arsène and the board decided its important to keep the spine of that squad together and augment them with just 2 starting players to ensure a smooth transition on to the next level. Those are Sead Kolašinac and Alexandre Lacazette. The former becoming a cult hero in no time, the latter showing great composure in front of goal with an icy coolness.
Now before last Sunday vs Everton, due to various reasons, Arsène never had an opportunity to showcase his grand vision for this season. When he finally got the chance… oh boy, it was so magnifique that long after the final whistle, that ultimately put Ronald Koeman out of his misery, there was echoes online of “give us more, give us more”.
That brings us to Swansea today. They don’t score many goals, in fact just 6 so far this season in 9 outings, but they also conceded just a solitary goal in their last 4 away games. And with their primary objective being not to get relegated, one can expect them again being very focused on jealously guarding their goal by playing with 9 men behind the ball.
Should that give us pause for concern… well I’m not nervous, Arsène have the same team of last week available for selection today and I just can’t see them shutting us out , especially if our “awesome foursome”, Ramsey, Alexis, Özil and Lacazette, do what they did so well vs Everton – batter their defence till they’re drained of all energy, then devour their poor souls. Not rocket science this football ‘malarkey’ eh?
If I’ve got one criticism of last week it would be the lax manner in which we conceded the 2 goals. If the players can work on improving that, I can see us using this game as a nice launch pad in preparation for next weekend’s Super Sunday opponents – Man City.
But for now… THIS is the BIG one. It’s Arsène Wenger’s 800th PL fixture at the helm and it needs to be a good one.
Should we win today it will be 10 on the bounce at the Emirates. So good luck to those going to the game and scream your lungs out and wave your flags, because at the moment there’s no place like home. Do so too for the rest of us watching from around the globe, as we will be there in spirit.
Fingers crossed the Arsenal “give us more” and the Arsène gets his party.
Positively Arsenal 
I watched the second half of the ManU-Spurs borefest..At one point, Spurs passed from Lloris to a RB to a midfielder..And Martin Tyler gushed over the ‘angles’ that Spurs make.. Even his co-commentator was embarrassed and said..it’s simple but good. I bet Tyler was only doing his job according to the ‘script’ he was given by his bosses. Btw..Is anyone questioning Spurs’ cojones?
I thought we played well, but just like with Everton, we had lapses in concentration and that led to a goal (and nearly a goal with Mertesacker giving the ball away) Going forward though, I was quietly confident we’ll get it right, even when Swansea in the first half looked near impossible to break down.
But for me, the standout moment (and not in a good sense) was the ref belatedly blowing up for a foul by Lacazette when Alexis was clean through on goal, and the TV company decided that goal changing moment didn’t even warrant a replay. I don’t know what happened, but 99% of the time it is only the defender who fouls in such a situation. The 1% is reserved for Arsenal. To me, the fact that it was called a foul, that it was a delayed call, and that there was no replay, just suggests deliberate manipulation. Maybe I’m wrong and replays prove that the ref was right, but until I have proof otherwise I am certain that was cheating (seen similar too often before). And it is crap like that that has caused me to cut down on watching the PL. I don’t want a scripted ‘product’, but that’s what I seem to get, whether it be through a pre-determined narrative, or the actual game being ‘adjusted’ to fit said narrative.
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afcstuff @afcstuff 6h6 hours ago
Aaron Ramsey in the PL:
Last season: 1 goal in 23 apps
This season: 3 goals in 9 apps
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shard as I pointed out earlier, only AFC can be described as getting a lucky win cos our opponents had a goal rightly ruled out for offside.
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isn’t it odd that match of the day panel, just like all other football shows have yet to mention that Liverpool are barely giving any game time to a £40M signing, who is an England regular, imagine if AFC were doing that.
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That was a good win, although I feel we only hit about 75% of what we are truly capable of, even then we completely dominated Swansea and apart from the chances that we gave them, they didn’t trouble us one bit.
If we can cut out those careless mistakes, lapses in concentration and also be more ruthless with our chances, we could actually have a decent go at the title. Our front three are good but imo our key man is the number 8 behind them. The Swansea midfield simply couldn’t contain him, and with a bit more composure he could have scored more than the single goal he got today.
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Alabama
Cheers for info. Not even sure what I pay now for Sky Sports and BT. Pay a lot more than I’d like to per month for the whole shebang and have avoided details for a few years as I don’t like thinking about what Murdoch’s getting from me.
Would definitely cough up the extra though if it let me see another ten or so Arsenal games per year.
I paid 10 or 15 bucks to get a channel called premier sports this summer because it was showing one of our pre-season games- now that was weak!
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Shard. Sounds like you’re describing one of pgmol’s classic moves there, an Atkinson special.
Basic rule is: if an Arsenal player loses ball under pressure/contact, allowing opponents on goal- play on; if an Arsenal player gets through towards goal following pressure/contact- stop play if in any way feasible.
It’s a hard thing to track. For instance, would there be any outrage/ much talk at all if we ‘won’ the ball as Gueye did on Xhaka last week and the ref called a foul? Late in that same game Ramsey won the ball in a challenge in a near identical position. Foul called. no replay.
Can be stretched as far as the Bournemouth goal last year when Bellerin got hefty shove in corner, and I suppose even the Alonso goal applies
These calls are typically nowhere near as controversial nor as visible- especially when it is only stopping us in a promising position- as penalty or red card decisions but they certainly have an effect over a season- if, of course, I’m not imagining that ‘rule’.
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The replay thing is very suspicious in my view, lose count of calls against us, or fouls by oppo etc not replayed by Sky/BT yet every perceived call that leads to an AfC advantage/ goal is replayed over and over again. Stinks
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New post up
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