Good morning Positives,
So … another international break, another fortnight to ponder the knowns v unknowns of our chosen sport, the carefully laid plans, the freaks of opportunity and of fortune, the strengths and weaknesses of character, and a reluctant acceptance of Fate. After Super Sunday, Meditative Monday.
Of yesterday’s match I felt that we were beaten by a better side on the day. The movement of Citeh’s front four, especially Sane, with their strings pulled by Silva pulled us apart on several occasions and the half time score probably was a little generous to us. We have very good players, the equivalent quality to De Bruyne, Aguero and Sterling, and later Jesus, but yesterday they created more chances, and better chances. Fortunately their finishing was fairly shite.
I make no criticism of our defenders or keeper. I think Francis Coquelin put in a good shift in a role that he had no experience and probably no idea he would be playing in until the aircraft took off. Kosc and Nacho played well and Sead was, in my opinion, probably our best player. His battle with Walker was a great contest.
I do not think that Sanchez playing up front on his own worked. Had Danny been fit it may have been the card to play but the Chilean did not settle to the task, and our shape was ragged.
I think after 56 minutes with the introduction of Lacazette we looked a far more effective operation and for the first time forced Citeh on to the back foot. Suddenly Alexis looked confident and effective, Mesut and Rambo gained half a yard. Suddenly, and by no means against the run of play, we were RIGHT BACK IN IT.
I really fancied that in the final 10-15 minutes of the game that the home side, having had a hard game at Naples in the week, would be there for for the taking as fatigue set in. Fool that I am.
Alas however whatever ‘could’ have been achieved with our team properly balanced we shall never know as a third home goal intervened. After the third went in we did not get the upper hand again in the final 20 minutes. I sympathise with the anger and frustration of the players. A clear error by the linesman that could have been resolved in seconds by the VAR. But we are where we are. We won’t be where we are in two years time, but no doubt there will be other obstacles that crop up in due course. I shall rant at the moon ( again).
The Totties up next- exactly the opponent required. Let’s make sure the officials know which way to twist the knife.
Not a cloud in the sky this morning nor a breath of wind moving the trees. See above. Enjoy your week.
Positively Arsenal 
My impression was that it was Blatter who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into accepting goal line technology Shard rather than the English FA having much to do with it. Eventually even the Swiss had to accept the inevitable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/18732237
And that was the start of his downfall……..
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The English FA/Pgmol rejected Arsenal’s proposal to use Goal Line tech in the Emirates Cup. Yes, Blatter was reluctant. And that probably had as much to do with waiting to ‘capitalize’ on the contract somehow, than any other reason. But the FA certainly weren’t pushing for it before. They do the bare minimum, like most bureaucratic organisations.
And while Blatter was abusing his position for personal gain, under his ‘reign’, the World Cup became more representative of the world from its Western European and South American hold. (I know even that was built around personal gain. But good things can come from bad intentions too) His fall came about because the North Americans didn’t get their ‘rightful’ share in the pie.
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Yep it was the US Gov that rolled up their sleeves and lead the delve into what they define as a RICO Enterprise. That’d be the same USofA where umpires and third officials in _VARs explain their decisions to the crowd and audience – just like down at Beeston or the heady heights of East Grinstead in the star studded glamerous and lucrative national hockey league (the ‘league’ doesn’t have a theme song, they haven’t had such ‘Expert’ branding advice yet, but they do have officials that have some credibility…)
In case people have had some problem viewing a tried and tested system that could easily be rolled out in football i’m just going to leave this right here. If you dont want to watch it, you don’t have to:
If hockey coaches are good enough to coach Holland at a football world cup (the Dutch team came 3rd in that tournament! Good enough i think) then can we please have some of their administrators and officials too?
Asking for a friend, or two, who all love the football…
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Out of curiosity and for informative comparison i couldn’t find out the capacity of that stadium in the clip or the name of the league where they are using VARs successfully and without no ‘billy b*ll*cks*.
Let’s say the stadium was 1/3 full from the clip above. two, maybe three thousand people at the match as a very very generous guess. But they still have VARs! It’s remarkable! Eh?
And more importanly, they have their own pub!
“The facility is unique as it has its own public house, the Stick and Pitcher, small conference facilities, medical room, hockey shop, and cafeteria area.
The roof hosts two decked areas overlooking all three pitches.
There is a hard standing car park for 188 cars.”
They’re doing somethings right (not just the VARs).
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Blatter’s final shot in the goal line technology war before defeat was his 5th official behind the goal scheme, bloody pointless as that has proven.
The English FA has never had any pull in Uefa or FIFA as far as I know, bit like the UK in the EU. Constantly moaning but never doing anything. They should have chucked us out years ago.
The only league who appear to show any enthusiasm for trialling new technology seems to be the Dutch. I have no idea why.
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Northern Ireland’s Corry Evens’s wife tweeted this after last nights game – what a nasty piece of work she is
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She apologised – I’m sure she is not that kind of girl
https://twitter.com/Lisa_H9/status/929021040528936962
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I particularly admire the “I would never condone racism in any way”
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I don’t like gypsies .
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You don’t like referees either
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Why I will always support Wenger
Nov 8, 2017 | Football
Johan Djourou
When I was 15-years old, Arsenal gave me the opportunity to trial with their pros. For a week, I trained with the club’s first team and also participated in a friendly game (it was Robert Pires first game back after a long convalescence). After the game, Arsène Wenger spoke to me. He told me that he believed that I could have a big career in England. For an unexperienced kid still playing for a small Swiss club, hearing those words from a legendary Boss like him was just an unbelievable feeling.
I love the memories of my first official game with the professional squad. I was just 17 when I put the kit on for the first time. I felt nervous, so Wenger came up to me and said: “Jo, I know it’s your first game, but you have to keep calm. When you come out of the tunnel, I want you to play the same way you would be playing in a park in Geneva.” In my head, I was thinking that it certainly couldn’t be that easy, but it took a lot of pressure off me.
From that moment on, I had the upmost respect for Wenger. He had kept his promises by giving me a chance to play with the first team only a few years after recruiting me. I will forever be thankful for what he did for me and my football career.
I have always loved just how human he is. Even though it’s not always easy to work with all the players as a professional football coach, Wenger always tries. When taking difficult decisions, he’s very tactful when communicating them to the players. His personality really makes it enjoyable and a desire for players to play for him.
Wenger is also great at analyzing things. In recent years, the relationship coaches have with their players has evolved. In modern football, coaches with a dominant personality have a difficult job. Today, players often bring into question what they are told to do. Wenger completely understands this mentality, and he’s always open for discussion; and doesn’t have a thickheaded personality like many believe.
In recent months, it has saddened me to hear people were questioning him. It seems to me, nowadays, you can win as many times as you want, but people will only remember your losses.
Fans, pundits and other players can say whatever they want, but nobody can deny that Wenger has brought in a philosophy and culture that created a lot of success for Arsenal. He has also brought a stability that only a few football clubs have.
Of course, Arsène has been in place for a very long time. I can understand that the only thing fans want are titles, and that Arsenal hasn’t won the championship for quite some time now (they still won the cup in 2015 and 2017). There will be a time when he will have to go. But nobody should take away the great things he has achieved for Arsenal. I will always love those years playing for the Boss in North London.
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Tim of 7amKickoff, decided to deride Ivan Gazidis with “Arsenal are the most inefficient spending club in the League”.
Ivan Gazidis, would never use Transfermarkt or The Guardian, as a source to prove that the Arsenal are efficient in transfer spend. Mr Gazidis, would use the Financial Reports, to support his thesis!
I prefer to use FRS10, now FRS102.
BUT, the Financial Reports have to include the cash flow out and in for players’ registrations.
Fordstam, Chelsea FC plc and Chelsea Football Club Limited, have not yet published their 2017 Financial Reports.
I have used the Financial Reports for 2013 through to 2016, for comparing Arsenal annual transfer spend to Chelsea.
Arsenal, net spend, £137 millions.
Chelsea, net spend, £228 millions.
Chelsea, will be able to claw back, a lot more Value Added Tax, than The Arsenal!
Tim, a nice fellow, but he is a twerp. No need to demolish his “masterpiece in misinformation”.
…………………
Man City 1 Yellow, Arsenal 6 yellows, that is tilting the advantage to City. With 14 fouls each?
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Bloody hell, that tweet is absolutely shocking! I doubt she will hear the last of that one
Loved reading the Djourou comments, have heard a lot of similar things from players past and present, yet the msm generally ignore some of these positive opinions, in favour of the likes of Robson and Merson
Wenger is clearly a class act
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Giroud scored his 28th goal for France tonight, putting him up to joint 7th in their all time scoring list, he only needs 2 more goals to equal Fontaine and Papin joint 5th, and 3 more to equal Zidane in 4th spot, and 6 to equal Trezequet in 3rd
he has exact same scoring rate – 0.41 goals a game, as Thierry Henry who is France’s all time top scorer
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Something on VAR that I hasn’t been talked about a lot. The effect of VAR on players. Apparently in Italy where VAR is being used, players are more disciplined and the game is cleaner. Because players trust that the cameras will spot anything and alert the officials, they are actually focusing on the game more and when a decision is made, players are sorrounding the ref less.
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Arsenal FCVerified account @Arsenal
30m30 minutes ago
Another one 🔥
@EddieNketiah9 scores the winner as @England Under-19s beat Iceland 2-1 in Bulgaria 👏
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Have a nasty feeling we are going to wish VAR could be available for our next fixture
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Hip, Hip, Hooray to NOTH for that post on November 10th. In the Facebook and Google era we have a crisis of sensation over substance. People are addicted to being liked for their opinion rather than the validity of such opinions. 7am is firmly in the WengerOut Brigade along with his many co-bloggers but he is a poseur who tilts the data to support his pov. Real truth-tellers are not afraid of data and will not tilt it one way or the other. I have often done research where the outcome was a surprise but I published nonetheless. For example, Penalties-For do not conclusively show PGMO bias but the Penalties-Against amongst the top 6 clubs shows overwhelming bias by the Riley led gang. No winder 7am and his co-bloggers refuse to expose the PGMO as a bunch of racketeers and be in the vanguard for VAR. They will opportunistically tail the issue and jump on the bandwagon when it is inevitable. The current situation is conducive to their constant sniping and undermining of Arsene Wenger. Once again it took an established pro who was nurtured by the boss when he was a baby in the form of Djourou to make nonsense of their criticisms and to proclaim Wenger as the greatest.
In the meantime I recommend to you this piece explaining how Facebook and Google are causing a public health crisis in their profit-driven mania to exploit our addiction to sensation. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-11/how-facebook-google-threaten-public-health-and-democracy
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Giroud has now scored 15 goals in his last 22 games for France, the lamppost
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Arsenal ‘speed up Rob Holding payments to help Bolton Wanderers’
© SilverHub
By Daniel Lewis, Football League Correspondent
Filed: Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 13:56 UK
Arsenal have reportedly agreed to speed up payments to Bolton Wanderers for defender Rob Holding in an attempt to help the financially-stricken club.
The 22-year-old arrived at the Emirates Stadium in July 2016 for a £2.5m sum, being used 14 times in the Premier League since making the switch.
According to The Sun, additional extras were included as part of the transfer – likely to be appearance related – and Arsenal are happy to step up their payments ahead of schedule.
Holding appeared regularly for Arsenal towards the end of last season but has made the majority of his outings this term in the Europa League and EFL Cup.
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Is there no end to Xhaka’s skullduggery? The foul play, the red card tackles, now this: through his diabolical appeals for a penalty that wasn’t the other night, he hoodwinked a referee into giving the penalty he wasn’t going to give, which denied Northern Ireland a world cup spot, apparently.
The bastard!
Journalist in question, highlighting Xhaka’s wrongdoing, is one i have firmly disliked since this interview a few years back
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29677078
A beautiful touch is that after watching the game in question and during the interview, she clearly decided losing a goal through a bad refereeing decision – a big push on Flamini which led straight to a goal- is not a factor in the result and should pointedly be ignored.
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A few reports, probably completely unreliable, say we are close to a deal to sign some Fekir who plays over in France, with Alexis departing somewhere
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-41966741
Tell you what, receiving a high number of Premier League* penalties in your favour doesn’t come cheaply!
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Mandy
Plenty of outlets making those Fekir claims, but they all got it from…The Daily Star.
We may have a big interest in him, but he’s their captain, they’re good for money, Aulas is their owner, it’s November, he’s in sensational form, the market is so crazy a club would just wait till the summer if they had any willingness to sell a mega talent for a huge fee.
Chances of us having a deal already in place (neatly paid for by selling Ozil and Sanchez for 30 mill apiece) must be about zero.
Sense we’ve reached point now where almost everyone has started to not take these claims seriously, but that may just be while the window is closed.
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Shotts & NOTH
I’m sure that the 7am chap is a lovely fellow but I gave up on listening to what he had to say on the football when he asked for a football club to sell a footballer such as Rosicky, before he returned from injury strife to torment Tottenham and the “best full back in Europe” Danny Rose in particular three or four of Rozza’s few goals in his second post injury spell came a result of targetting Rose. It’s not a great mystery why Tottenham’s form & football record has been better since the “best FB in Europe” has been out the team.
Rosick’s rehab was a credit to the club physios and coaches.
I haven’t seen any of these “Shambolic” (TM) data sleuths and arse blaggers whip out the numbers (such as the number of those delicious goals resulting from Rosicky targeting the Tottenham’s “World Class” LB) in praise of AFC, one can only assume there’s more chance in seeing the sky turn blood red with little winged cannons and cupids fluttering away like a demented swarm of butterflies before that happens.
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< haven't or didn't see any praise of the club's handling of Rosickys rehab.
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If were to be as critical of the critics as they are of the club we would comment and suggest that recommending Etienne Capoue as the ky player for AFCs midfield wasn’t ever the smartest suggestion.
Not because I believe Capoue is a poor footballer, that would be silly, but if Xhaka is sent off for blowing kisses to his opponents then, well, to be fair and reasonable I’m not sure that the inability to acknowledge the blatantly obvious upon the football pitch nevermind looking at the accounts in order to, erm, comment upon the accounts (L.O.L.), none of it is doing these chief blaggers any favours.
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Just what we need, another foreign fekir
*sorry
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In truth Fekir is very good, was a teenage sensation, went a bit quiet but is a killer for Lyon this season, back in France squad – very talented
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Fortunately her majesty’s constabulary are not as big a SHAMBLES™ as the FA committee that employs Trevor Sinclair, and therefore they didn’t have some kind of jobbering esoteric crisis when identifying where simple rules were broken.
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PGMOL have rolled out their big guns for the NLD this Saturday, Mike Dean
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Mike Dean warming up for Saturday
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It’s usually goals goals goals with Deano – obviously he is not in Mossy’s class but I’m hopeful.
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Don’t worry pips after the irrideemable damage to his reputation during the fix in west London we know what to expect. On only his second return to N5 since and the same as previous the genius with the cunning plans will “amazingly” not cheat, at least not so obviously, and undeniably. After all, someone has to take over from that stand up gentleman responsible for the fox which I am sure all you sane and honest people acknowledge, the 50th game.
It’s a dirty job, composing a structure that is designed for failure, but someone’s got to do it!
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Mike Dean for the NLD, what a surprise. The message to Spurs, carry on diving
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Fix > fix
(unfortunately)
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> fox!
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remember when Gareth Southgate said Jack Wilshere left out of England squad cos he had not played enough games, so I find it odd that Dominic Solanke is in the England Squad for the game v Brazil, despite him not having started a BPL game, all 7 of his BPL games have been as a sub,
If he plays in the game, he will have made his England debut before he has started a BPL game
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Two dodgy pens in the last two NLDs against us, we know what’s coming, hope Wenger ensures they are very streetwise in this game
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I remember either an article or a post on UA on how every time Wenger lays into ref, they would send in certain refs to punish the team.
Wenger laid into the refs after the city game.
The thing is, if there is an agenda against our club, or manager, they get a free pass with the media, eg Alan Smith saying City’s third goal was onside, and they get a free pass with much of the fanbase as well, looks to me like many of our own, as well as spud fans on AFC forums want them to win.
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[beIN Sports], Wenger on Sterling: “he used the naivety of the referee in a very positive way, The referees don’t work, they don’t do their homework. He used well his position to get in front. A penalty is a deliberate foul, it’s not a provoked foul. That’s where the difference is.”
Wenger on the FA charging him: “I don’t mind. I am 35 years in the job, it will not change my mind. In this game we conceded a penalty that was not a penalty and an offside goal that was an offside goal. They should look at themselves rather than at other people, who have to absorb their wrong decision and stand up for it, and the comments they make.”
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An American couple sample their first ever EPL game at the Arsenal. Unlike Alabamagooner, however, they were not going to become Gooners because they didn’t like the way Arsenal played the game. They were impressed with Leicester City’s defending!
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Dean for the NLD! Riley is taking no chances. One of his most reliable soldiers will take charge.
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Eddy: Thanks for the quotes by Wenger on the Sterling penalty. As my research on 20 yrs of Penalties in the PL proved, it is the Penalties-Against Arsenal where we see the clear referee bias among the top-6. Wenger says the refs are inept, the data says they are biased.
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AndyNic: If you can, please post the links to my Penalties-Against blog a few months back. I badly want to update my findings when I once again have my broadband connection. Slowly but surely hurricane recovery continues here at home.
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I don’t remember where I found the following but it was quite a few years ago. It made me more than giggle….
The third point is that debate and criticism, when they are constructive, are a necessary and desirable aspect of human society. The debate that usually ensues from the publication of articles, which question the Arsenal regime, is always interesting and fun, even when it degenerates into childish mudslinging. It is a way of hearing other peoples’ points of view, and this is a good thing, even if you don’t agree with those opinions, because it broadens your own view of the situation and makes you think in ways you otherwise would not. There are those who seem to think that disagreement among Arsenal fans is a bad thing – indeed, you could say that opinion is divided on the issue of whether or not opinion should be divided – but I disagree with the argument that disagreement is bad! A friend of mine recently questioned my loyalty to Arsenal when I wondered aloud whether Gervinho might be keeping a casserole warm in inside his giant head (I should like to point out here that I am not attacking Gervinho – I happen to think that the energy and effort he has brought to the team have been refreshing – it’s just that he does have an unusually large head). Although the exchange was not in any way serious, it did make me wonder what it would be like to live in a world where every supporter of every club did nothing but praise the players and management and agree with each other about everything, regardless of what was actually happening on the pitch. I decided that it would be just plain boring.
So, in conclusion, the day I decide that we should all sing from the same song-sheet all the time will be the day I move to North Korea. In my humble opinion, having opinions is important. What’s more, venting is healthy, debate is essential, and the journalists and pundits who offer up their opinions, whether positive or negative, deserve to be listened to and respected, even when they are complete cretins. Now please, for the love of God, start disagreeing with me!
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In one sequence (2009-10 to early, Gabriel red card Chelsea, 2015-16) Dean did 18 out of 49 of our fixtures against Utd, City, Chelsea and Spurs.
For someone who regards him as i do, that’s a horrific stat. For the rest, it should still point to a great failing on Pgmol/ FA’s part to bring through refs who can be ‘trusted’ with the big fixtures.
Utd p5: D1 L4
City p5: W1 D 3 L1
Chelsea p5 : D2 L3
Spurs p3 : W2 L1
That’s the only legitimate reason for one ref to do such a huge proportion of certain, vital games: either a chronic shortage of good enough refs to take on the bigger and, by their rationale, tougher and more important fixtures; or some refs, like Dean, being so damn good at them they just have to take precedence over ok but not as good officials.
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There you go Shotta https://positivelyarsenal.com/2017/01/30/a-206-increase-in-penalties-vs-afc-proves-bias/
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I was very impressed with the referee, Antonio Lahoz, in the Italy v Sweden game last night. It was clearly a high stakes game with both sets of players cheating relentlessly all evening. To his credit though he gave decisions only on what he saw, not what he thought he had seen, and not what players hysterically appealing or rolling around on the floor were trying to persuade him he had seen.
The commentators were apoplectic but unless you stick your hand out to stop the ball, and the ref sees it, it ain’t a penalty
If you are touched in the penalty box and fall over be more careful where you put your feet and tie your shoelaces, it ain’t a penalty.
Keep up the good work Antonio.
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Anicol
He was very good. Those handballs weren’t quite pens for me, even with benefit of replays. Same with other ones, although the knee on Darmian is one it might be hard to reject IF VAR had been in use (real time just looked a mess and not one a ref could be sure of)
Think game may have highlighted the contingent (? what happens in past or elsewhere can exert influence over present, i.e. each minute isn’t a blank slate) element of the sport, i.e the decision in Northern Ireland game may well have influenced how ref approached task for this one.
Also brought into focus for me the question of whether some games deserve a higher threshold of certainty on the big calls, which itself brings up the issue of whether more certainty should be required on big calls (in box, reds, etc) than smaller ones.
Hell of an interesting match, anyway. Fascinating from perspective of how player behaviour changes, especially in terms of trying to win and appeal for pens, but also in exaggerating fouls, depending on what’s at stake in the match. All for worst, you’d have to say.
All this in front of a home crowd doing their full bit to try and pressure and persuade the referee, almost literally waiting with baited breath, poised on the trigger, for the merest hint of something they could claim vociferously for.
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