Good afternoon Positive Arsenal fans,
I sprint down the tunnel from the Turf Moor pitch to bring you this very early post, breathless from the contest, my muscles aching from the effort over the past 92 minutes, my face bright red, the sweat steaming in the early evening gloom. It is not a pretty sight I admit. And it was not a pretty sight, of that I suspect we agree.
Of the game itself ?I am told by the BBC we had just 64% possession. I must have been watching a different game. It was at least 75%. The visiting team that played all the football and tried to win the game ‘won’. The home team that parked their bus had its tyres slashed and the vehicle ruthlessly vandalised, having taken their eye off it just for that fatal spilt second ‘lost’. Tarkowski must have lost his mind. Our Chilean as cool as an Andean glacier at dawn. Bravo.
For our mighty club I thought we had a good outing. It could have been ‘tricky’ but it was not. Sead was superb this afternoon, the man goes from strength to strength. After some rough treatment in the first half, Alex Iwobi was our most creative player, and Mustafi our best defender. There was great ‘purpose’ about our football today. Rock solid at the back, very few loose passes, good movement by players to open space amid the massed ranks of claret and blue. No real creative deficit with Mesut rested. I would like to see a little more accurate shooting, but I am nit picking.
Having overlooked a first penalty for the Brady foul on Hector Mr Mason redeemed himself late in the game. Have a look yourself, as cast iron as they come in my book,
Cast iron, as I say , and thoroughly deserved.
Of the home side they are difficult to beat and no wonder they have let in one goal in four PL games. If Burnley’s attacking players had concentrated more on staying upright rather than trying to win free kicks and penalties then that may have secured the point. Is it me or is Robbie Brady the most irritating footballer in the PL ? However if Dyche and his merry men carry on like this it may be the Europa League will return Continental teams to Turf Moor for the first time in 50 years.
I imagine we shall see more of the same on Wednesday agin Huddersfield. I think Jack will start. Let us hope we do not have to wait quite so late, nor rely on so foolish a foul to win the game.
And thank you to our friends at the Daily Mail for the top picture.
Positively Arsenal 
Mick,
there’s nothing friendly regarding the officials doing their jobs! Except regarding Mr.Friend who has a fine (& human as in there are errors) record of late with AFC which is why AFC don’t see him or any like him more then twice a season L&L&L.O.L!
Out of respect a friendly official deserves a proper address/title. Mr. Friend has simply shown himseld to be competent with no consistent bias, it’s not as if he’s earned jhimself an endearing nick name from fans, players and peers which is what heppens to good officials in sport – no, they do not get called by their first names, that doesn’t happen! Not unless you are seeking to prop up an unworthy indivdual who has earnt plenty of nick names over the years but not the kind of nick names that people repeat with affection and respect.
Riley’s flock of clowns? They ain’t no Dickie Bird’s amongst them but there are some prized (more games then the rest) and strutting cocks. I can find you plenty of other popular nick-names for them but none that are affectionate or endearing, for some reason…
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<…nothing friendly or generous…
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Now we have arch Arsenal/Wenger hater Durham calling for Ramsey to be done for simulation and calling Arsene a hypocrit for defending him.
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How about points deduction for the same old arsenal!
Hang Vengarrrgghhh from the gibbet!
We must protect our sacred game and our purity from these Football loving plebs. And their evil, effeminate and enticing Football. Producing footballers that could, perchance draw with Iceland? Perchance to dream?
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ha ha ha, the FA panel have decided that Lukaku kicking the Brighton defender twice in an off the ball incident is not enough for him to face a charge.
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https://www.arsenal.com/news/why-defensive-resilience-was-key-burnley
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The frequency of this screeching against AFC, Deeney, the storm in the tea cup, Durham’s years and years of trolling failure, it is all:
Very amusing.
Risible yes that too. We should not hide our appreciation in the class and quality of these critics.
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Walcott returned to training today after illness. Back in contention for Wednesday night’s game.
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Orbinho @Orbinho
Andre Marriner will officiate Arsenal v Man Utd
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FP, I think it’s do with London. More than any other team Arsenal are seen as embodying the things that are most derided about London in old-school English football circles. That sort of old-fashioned continental sneakiness and flakiness. Middle class wankery: Lattes, rocket, quinoa and all that, even though those are pretty dated digs.
In the build-up the 5live commentator was talking about the weather and doubted we’d fancy it. Except I couldn’t think of a single player in the whole squad apart from Ozil who would pull out of a 50-50. You could name two or three in most other PL teams. And none of Alexis, Kolasinac, Mustafi or Koscielny are as far from that idea of soft as you can get.
That Tony Evans bloke sums it up best. I think he’s from Liverpool and resents Arsenal as being representative of inequality – he was the one who was upset about us cheering because the trains back to Liverpool were cancelled a couple of years ago.
He hates the idea that football should be seen as entertainment and even called it the “Arsenalification of football”!
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None of this is anything to be bothered about; it’s a badge of honour if anything.
I mean I could understand why Tony Evans would resent London. I think I would if I were from anywhere else.
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I think the kids call this “yer da”:
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Personally I never listen to talkshite anymore, another Murdoch piece of shit, but Durham hasn’t failed he knows as soon as he mentioned ARSENAL the switchboard lights up as the fish takes the bait. He would of lost his job years ago if it wasn’t for Arsene, ARSENAL and the easily led malcontents.
As for the Daily mail I wouldn’t thank the tax avoiding, Nazi lovers for anything.
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Football was always and is always entertainment BK – perhaps if Evans earned a living in an environment lived in the real world , where people live,die, suffer, excel, live in the gutter by reason of sweet random chance he might ‘get’ that
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I am pleased that PG has the “gall” to continue the good fight on twitter!
Mesut Özil to Barcelona FC? It would seem that Diario Gol, has noted the thoughts of Florentino Pérez.
Diario Gol, is an internet portal for Real Madrid and Barcelona FC gossip.
It is alleged that Mesut is a “night owl”, prowling the night clubs. Messi, is not at all pleased, a party animal would spoil the harmony of the dressing room!
Anybody can read the article by typing – Diario Gol, in google.
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As for anyone ranting about Talksport
DO FUCK OFF
I have not listened to them for years – they are not just rubbish about Arsenal – they are just rubbish – every team – every VICTIM- they want this shit – the hatred – the offence – the complaints
Anyone in here like Talksport? Anyone ? Anywhere?
If you don’t like Talksport don’t pollute this site with reference to them
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Talksport this
Talksport that
I give up I really do
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The popularity of Talk Sport suggests to me that well over 50 years of UK education policy hasn’t really worked.
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That was written hastily earlier. I was talking about the Burnley build-up yesterday – Conor McNamara was the commentator.
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I don’t know about the education policy but an original purpose of news organisations was to inform and explain, and that is a rare intrusion into any football broadcast or article.
If the writer or the broadcaster finds poison, imbecility and abuse generate the all important clicks then why bother with any other formula
It’s probably us not them
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is Talksport any worse to Arsenal than Le Grove, or AFTV, how can we condemn media outlets when so many Arsenal blogs and sites, who profess to love Arsenal, do little other than attack everything Arsenal. Arsenal fans who blame Bellerin for the penalty v Watford, Monreal for the one v Man City and Debuchy for the one v Koln, are today talking about the “soft” penalty that Arsenal got v Burnley. How can we expect the media to act differently towards Arsenal when a large section of Arsenal are just as bad if not worse than any mainstream media outlet in their attacks on Arsenal
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I fear you will have to tell me eddy – is talksport worse than the grove, aftv et cetera?
I expect you can see where I’m going here ?
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well anicol I don’t know, as I don’t listen to talksport, am banned at lagrove and don’t watch AFTV, but from what I know of those Arsenal outlets I would be surprised if talksport could be any worse to Arsenal than they are.
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Ed do we still need to discuss about Le groan and the other Anti Arsenal media outlets?
I have scrapped them long ago thanks to Untold and PA. We know their agenda so no need to go there and give them clicks.
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Wee timorous Wrighty squeaking on about Ozil to Utd again, praising their players and doing down our own while he’s at it
“He is a great talent and having great players around him would lift him up as well.”
Must have escaped him how much those great players have lifted up Mikhitaryan since going there.
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Something just occurred to me as I was reading about Raul Sanhelli potentially joining us from Barcelona as ‘Director of Operations’. The way I see it, he’ll perform the David Dein role for us, but that’s just a guess.
Despite the idea that Wenger is a dictator or that this is a coup (That apparently Wenger is blind to and will allow?), Wenger has been clear on what terms he’s open to working under. He wants final say on transfers. He’s never been opposed to help in deciding and in fact has always encouraged it. Arsenal go about building slowly, properly. Whether it be the playing staff, the infrastructure, or the backroom staff.
Anyway, what occurred to me was that both Mislintat and Sanhelli allegedly left their roles because they felt let down by their clubs and the people there. It seems to me that Arsenal’s reputation of class, doing things the right way, and being a ‘family’ club, which precedes but also owes to, Wenger, is part of the reason these guys would choose us.
Pure speculation as to their motivations, but a point of view you wouldn’t hear in the media and mainstream blogs.
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Shard
I like those types of speculations cos i always think of arsenal as class and also willing to imagine others doing the same
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well shard if the barca guy is joining us, he is not taking the David Dein role, that was filled long ago, he would be taking over from Dick Law, it seems you have fallen in to the same trap the ASB have, in thinking that we did not replace Dein or have anyone other than Wenger working on transfers. If this guy comes in, the only person’s role in transfers that might change is actually Ivan Gazidis. It seems the Barca guy used to deal with most parts of the transfer fee end of deals there, so if he does the same here it would mean Ivan having less input on transfers, not Wenger.
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Wenger on Wilshere: “If I think his best interest is to stay here I will absolutely fight 100% for him to stay here. He’s top quality,”
Wenger also said that Ozil and Alexis will not be sold in January
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Team News – no one to be rested with utd game in mind, one game at a time is the mantra.
Ozil and Iwobi both have fitness tests today, Iwobi has a dead leg.
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Bit dubious about Sanhelli talk. Read a piece not long ago on there battle to sign Neymar while he was at Santos, and it was an astonishingly murky tale.
Funnily enough, it made it clearer than ever to me that there are certain deals and parts of the market that are simply off limits to us.
No idea what part Sanhelli played in that, but anyone excited by prospect of us signing the next Neymar wouldn’t be if they knew what was involved. Chelsea were right in there at one point, but there were practices we would never consider.
Funnily enough, the only tale I’ve seen to match the murk of Neymar involved Ousmane Dembele before joining Dortmund. If i remember rightly though, most of that was the result of agent shenanigans at his end. Still, it sounded like something we would never involve ourselves in.
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Well worth a read to get an insight into what it takes to get certain players.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/mar/30/neymar-brazil-barcelona-santos-transfer
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In the world of sports broadcasting, TalkSports is by far the winner of the Fake News Media of the year award. Stopped listening to them over one year now. Durham, Cundy, et. al. Ugh!
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Hello BK,
Hope you enjoyed that NLD!!!
If it was to do with London then that would explain the exceptionally weird and given the duration highly disturbing (if you like sport) lack of any official on the roster this past decade from the parts of the country that contain the largest proportion of Football clubs, that produces the highest no. of registered football players, of referees (at the lower levels) and is yet incapable it seems of providing a top level official.
But then that wouldn’t explain Tottenham!
Or even the coverage of Gazprom-upon-Thames. Haven’t seen as much critique of their selling/juggling of players as we would if it had been AFC flogging Salah and KDB etc. whilst selling and resigning Luiz for silly monies.
But going back to Tottenham, I’ve been loving the hype they get. Contrasted with their results on the pitch. Going back some years now. A source of consistent mirth.
Nevermind Talksport or Murder Inc. how mental has the coverage across the board here been in the U.K. regarding the team from N17?
Alli, a good (at best) footballer who played like he did against Iceland in the NLD (like he does in most games…) gets lauded as the next R.Baggio (he’s not!), Kane as the next Battistuta (Kane’s not terrible, neither was, say Sheringham…hehe):
it’s properly funny!
Then there are the FBs described by some plundits as the “best FBs in Europe” which doesn’t explain how and why Tottenham’s form and results have been better with one of them out of the side! Ignoring Rosicky targeting said FB for their poor technical ability game after game after game, leading him to have a better scoring record against Tottenham then most strikers. That Icelandic Burnley player was quite good. Too good for these amazing FBs at the Euros?
Considering the media darlings Tottenham, especially beloved by the producers at Aunty Bleeb and Major-General Dyke, I don’t think it’s to do with London.
I think it’s to do with money.
And given the progeny of most of these critics, the partial source of their money, then yes politics too. Just the same as in the football in most other countries, as it always has been (adding in the variation now of petrogarchies buying up football clubs).
Money and politics.
Looking around the leagues, the clubs, their histories, it’s not in reasonable to acknowledge that this has always been a partial consideration in football going back a long long time.
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eduardo
I’m probably prey to believing some of the nonsense out there, and I’ll admit I do not know who does what at Arsenal because they don’t speak about it much. Law’s presentation in Brazil was interesting because it revealed some of what goes on, and disorganized/working at cross purposes is not what came across.
Personally, I do not believe there’s any discord at Arsenal, except the healthy disagreement that every good organisation is bound to have and needs.
What did David Dein do? As I saw it, Wenger told him his targets (armed with an understanding of costs of course) and Dein saw to the business side of it. Arranging the funds, negotiating the deals etc.
Dick Law did much the same, except I think Gazidis was a link between Wenger and Law. I have a feeling Sanhelli, if he joins, is meant to be the guy Wenger goes to and says make this happen. So you are right that it reduces Gazidis’ workload, not Wenger’s. But it probably reduces Wenger’s involvement to an extent because he’ll be dealing directly with the guy making it happen.
Mislintat meanwhile is the new chief scout, effectively replacing Rowley. I think he’ll also be a regular at the training ground so he can advise and suggest ways to improve the squad through the market (or indeed the academy) At least he was apparently doing that at Dortmund before Tuchel banned him from the ground. I think he’s there to provide a more effective filter for the information Wenger is getting from not just the scouting but also the stats teams. Again, dealing with one guy instead of two (or more) for getting the relevant information.
By the way, reading the BBC feature on Valencia’s revival in fortunes, it appeared to me to be very much a case of following the ‘outdated’ system of giving a manager greater control over transfers and club affairs.
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Sanhelli’s appointment has been announced. (He’ll join in February, so no immediate transfer window fireworks for those agent led pundits and fans) I see a lot of people saying his job title ‘Head of Football Relations’ is merely a ploy of appointing a DoF and they seem very pleased with themselves. Like hahaha..Gazidis has outsmarted Wenger. That old fool will never know that we now have a DoF. Right..
Anyway, the interesting bit was that apart from the talk of his experience with transfers, which obviously is his main role, he, and it seems not Gazidis, will be representing Arsenal in the governing bodies. There was talk that he’s friends with the FIFA President. Maybe he can get Infantino to place a horse head in Riley’s bed? If so, this would be the best signing in the history of Arsenal Football Club, second only to signing Wenger himself.
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What does this man know about running a club?
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/rugby/how-arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-helped-form-harlequins-disciplinary-code-a3704166.html
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Oh well. Dubious no more about the Sanllehi talk. It’s official.
Must admit, quite pleased with prospect of a couple of big hitters joining the club.
As ever though, we’ll never really know about exactly who does what nor quality of work behind scenes, so possibly a disservice to old I am the Law, Dick Law and a long-time servant Rowley in imagining this heralds an ‘upgrade’
Still, new things!
One of his tasks will be dealing with domestic and international governing bodies. Maybe a bit of Barca skullduggery will prove useful there.
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Folks
By a strange sequence of events I have managed to get more tickets for Man Utd this Saturday that I needed.
Can any of let me know if you can take one or two?
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Good offer there dc, sorry I can’t help you out as I already have mine.
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It was with great sadness that the club learned of the recent death of Dermot Drummy, aged 56.
Islington-boy Dermot joined Arsenal as a youth team player in 1976. A talented central midfielder, he played alongside the likes of Paul Davis, Paul Vaessen and Brian McDermott in the youth and reserve teams, making over 100 appearances for the Gunners – he also made five league appearances during a loan spell at Blackpool. He left Highbury for Hendon Town in 1980.
Nearly 20 years later, a chance encounter with Liam Brady in 1999 saw Dermot back at the club as an academy coach and over the next eight years he proved himself instrumental in the development of many players who went on to enjoy first team careers with the Gunners and elsewhere.
He left for the Chelsea Academy in 2007 where he progressed to be international head coach. Most recently, Dermot managed League Two outfit Crawley Town last season.
The thoughts of everyone at Arsenal Football Club are with Dermot’s family and friends at this very difficult time.
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/dermot-drummy#L7EFhECGyuh3LLXe.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/dermot-drummy#z4sEyuSLjJSIEdRA.99
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We are delighted to announce that Raul Sanllehi is joining us as head of football relations.
Raul has been at Barcelona for the past 14 years. He will join us in February to lead future player negotiations and work alongside manager Arsène Wenger, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy.
He will also represent and support the club with international and domestic governing bodies.
The appointment follows the recent announcement of Sven Mislintat to head our player recruitment operations and Gazidis said: “In the past three years we have supplemented our team with more top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations.
“Raul’s appointment is another important step in developing the infrastructure we need at the club to take everything we do to the next level. Raul has extensive contacts across the football world and has been directly involved in some of the biggest transfers in Europe in recent years. We look forward to him bringing that expertise to Arsenal.”
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/head-football-relations-joins-barcelona#zZ5PoHLpy9ggPeJR.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/head-football-relations-joins-barcelona#g8BKoGBFvuf14DHB.99
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ha ha ha, Arsenal trolling the ASB, imagine appointing a transfer wheeler dealer, Raul Sanllehi, but not till after the next transfer window closes. love it
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Dermot Drummy
School-boy legend
RIP
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HT Leicester City 2 – 0 Tottenham Hotspur
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ozil and iwobi trained today
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FT: Leicester City 2 – 1 Tottenham Hotspur
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FOYS
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spurs have now lost as many league games this season as they did all of last season, powershift
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The Spuds are a decent team, but they don’t even come close to the media hype, which I believe will actually , ultimately damage the by raising false expectations, and going to the heads of certain players, especially those with new agents. But, not my concern!
Welcome Raul, whatever his role may be, he comes with a decent pedigree. And I am sure he will work with Arsene, Ivan , Sven M and the rest to make the team and club as great as it can possibly be
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