Good morning Positives,
I can still feel the damp discomfort of last night’s result but the effect is gradually reducing, dulled by time and the opportunity to review the event and look forward.
It would be difficult for anyone to add much more to Arsene’s comments about the game pivoting on a number of mistakes by us, from experienced defenders on several occasions and the absolute howler from Cech. Having had a second watch of the ‘highlights’ this morning that we went home beaten 3-1 was not as bad as it could have been.
I think as well as those crucial lapses there was just not enough quality in our attacking threat. A beautiful ball from Mesut and finish from Nacho for our first, a bit of trickery from Alex Iwobi, some nice movement from Aaron and Laca but it was nowhere near enough to unsettle the Swans back four. I watched Klopp’s Liverpool lose at the Liberty last Monday, and Fabianski put in a MOTM performance and made a 10-12 excellent saves. Last night he had perhaps 2-3 stops to make. I saw a little bit of what I wanted from Henrikh but it was no night to make your debut, chasing a game in a monsoon.
A man I would excuse from criticism last night was Mo Elneny. He put in one goal saving tackle in the first half that was almost perfect. Not the man to replace as it turned out or the time to replace him, thought at the time I can see why the change was made.
Apart from the instinct to chase the players and the managers’s through the streets demanding their blood and waving a rope can we earn anything from last night ?
Well my fourpence worth would be to decide to either play with a back four, or a back five. I don’t care which but stop changing from one to the other. Hector and Nacho seemed to be playing very wide and up the pitch, as wing backs in fact, leaving Kosc and Mustafi on their own. When Mo went off their isolation became critical.
At the other end of the pitch we saw the home side much better able than us to find space around and to open up the gaps in our defence, and they did that by aggressively running with the ball at their feet towards the aRsenal goal, inviting our defenders, Mo and Xhaka to either get stuck in or get out of the way. It was the SPEED at which they ran towards the defender with the ball that fractured us, not the quality of the attackers’ touch.
I would finally say a deserved win for Swansea. Clucas, Ayew and Mawson all stood out as impressive but a very good ‘team’ performance. Considering a few of them had played 90 minutes against Notts County in the Cup on Saturday they kept at it to the very end. If they are able to continue with that they surely will not end up relegated.
So six days on from the burst of joy and adrenaline the win against Chelsea gave us we bumped back to earth on the green, green grass of home.
We are fortunate to have a game on Saturday to clear the head and set the course for the run in with 13 PL games to go. Enjoy Wednesday.
Positively Arsenal 
there was a time Wenger wanted Phil Jones, and as we know AW often goes back for those he once wanted. but nah.
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Don’t be ridiculous – this is well organised, probably carefully coached deceit eddy
Perhaps with the benefit of an armchair and our multiple camera angles Marriner might see what we see.
Unfortunately he is running up and down the field.
It is a rottenness in the game – fucking disgraceful behaviour from every player, coach and manager
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well he can when he reviews the game report them to the FA for charges, but we know he won’t as none of the refs do, unless the TV companies make a fuss about an incident. The means are there, its the will that is missing at both the FA and PGMOL, again I ask why.
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Chelsea 3 down at home to Bournemouth with 23 minutes to play
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Giroud enjoying the Chelsea 0-3 Bournemouth game tonight
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Enjoying the poor defending from Utd and Gasprom more then usual this evening.
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Hands up those who think Antonio Conte will still be in charge of Chelsea in 10 days time ?
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Come on
There must be one of you out there ?
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Conte needs to watch it, Italian hired gun unemployed, living in London, though some link him with us
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They’re a dirty side. It’s like watching 1970s Leeds. But to be fair they must have an amazing physical trainer to get them running around like that. If you didn’t know better you’d think someone had slipped something into their feed.
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Wow, chelski losing 0 – 3 at home, shows that we’re not the only top side capable of shooting ourselves in the foot!
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we had room in our 25 man squad for 5 more players over the age of 21, make that 4 if we add Matt Macey to our goalie list.
have we left ourselves short again,
or was there any point in keeping guys who it looked like would not get a BPL start, maybe not even a EL start in the second half of the season.
If we get many injuries will it be a case of throwing in youth players –
RB – osei-tutu (yet to make debut but has been a sub a few times and AW mentioned him in recent programme as a guy who has a real chance of making it at AFC)
CB – Mavropanos
M – DaSilva, Willock
F – Nelson, Nketiah
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passenal did you hear conte claim that it was due to the disruption of losing Batchuyi, that they had trained with him in the starting 11 even up to yesterday, but loaned him out today, so they could get Giroud.
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Arsenal sold their top scorer in each of the past five seasons (Walcott 21 goals, Giroud 22, Sanchez 25, Giroud 24 and Sanchez 30) in the space of last 14 days.
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Reine-Adelaide on Wenger: “He asked me to work in Angers, listen well and come back stronger, more mature. I know that many people think that I should not have gone to Arsenal so early, but I have no regrets. Arsene Wenger gave me opportunities with the first team, then I had injuries. He then helped me a lot to come back. Here too, I want to say thank you [to Wenger].”
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Fantastic news about Mesut – I was quietly confident that he would stay. It’s definitely the best thing that’s happened this week (football-wise!).
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eduardo @11.33 pm, that seems an extraordinary thing for Conte to say! I get the impression that he has little input about who is bought or sold he just coaches the players that are given to him. It seems like an extraordinary way to do business. The comment he made about Ross Barkley was quite telling as well as highly insulting to the player.
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passenal, on Ozil, its not been confirmed by Arsenal, in fact they told some journos today that the deal was not signed, but it was “close”
I know Ozil himself hinted that it was signed with one of his tweets,
maybe by time AW does his pre Everton game press call it will be confirmed. Jack and Rambo too.
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looking at our squad, the rest of this season is going to be very big for them in regards to their Arsenal futures. We know per is retiring, and there is major doubt over Cazorla’s future. but for the likes of Cech and Ospina, Koscielny, Elneny, Chambers, Xhaka, Iwobi, Welbeck, maybe even Lacazette and Kolasinac, these guys have a lot to prove, ponder, and decide. How many of these guys will want out if not regulars for rest of season, how many of them will we want to keep for the same reason, and age and injury is a concern for some of them too. Koscielny being one such player, he is that little bit down in performance level this season, with his achilles problems likely to be the main reason for that.
our goalkeeping position will be an interesting one, Cech is not near the Cech of heyday, yet ospina can’t get a look in, and he took a bit of persuading to stay last summer, so I would expect he will leave at the end of the season. Martinez’s loan move to Spain is not getting him the game time we hoped for, Macey too lacks experience. I think most would agree that we could do with a world class keeper, is there one we can get this summer.
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Mou on Sanchez: “He tried hard but the game was not for him. In the 2nd half I gave him a position so he could be closer to Lukaku but he was dropping too much to try hard.” #MUFC
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Ozil surely has signed. Ornstein said it was signed and Ozil also suggested it with a cheeky tweet. I can only think that Arsenal don’t want to announce it because they need to let our record transfer have some time in the spotlight before announcing a club legend in the making is staying for another 3 years.
And when I say club legend, I mean it. That guy is like Bergkamp even off the field. It’s obviously a different era with social media and wall to wall coverage, but he isn’t an attention seeker. He gets what it means to be at this great club. Bergkamp talked about loving Arsenal even without trophies, Ozil has talked about what it means to be a legend and support the club.
All the ‘fans’ who insisted there is no way Ozil will stay, and that his statements are only PR have egg on their faces now. But most of them are shameless. They’ll keep looking for negatives, including following the media’s lead in pulling down Ozil for a ‘lack of ambition/fight’
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Also, I think this has been a great transfer window from Arsenal. I know it’s sad to lose Walcott, Giroud and Coquelin, but it made sense. We’ve ended up upgrading our attack, losing squad players (and Debuchy), extended our best player’s contract, and all for virtually no money in either transfers or wages.
I see complaints about this and how this means Kroenke can buy another ranch (You can’t make such people understand how Arsenal’s money works), and I also see some people try to pass this off as proof that this is what happens when Wenger’s hold is weakened. (What? We spent virtually nothing and now it isn’t to do with Wenger??)
This need to imagine a civil war brewing inside Arsenal is insane. Like literally. I see Ian Wright’s been championing that line while calling himself loyal. Ozil needs to put out another FB message.
When there were no reports of disagreements coming out of Arsenal…Wenger’s a dictator, nobody to challenge him..this is not how a football club is supposed to work..spineless board!
When there are some reports of discussion and indeed disagreement….Wenger doesn’t like Gazidis or Mislintat or statsDNA and they are fighting a battle against him. (As proof of this discord, they point to a transfer window where Arsenal did really well)
It’s a psychosis this. Arsenal and Wenger HAVE to be wrong. But no, the media has nothing to do with this..no way.
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i read it somewhere that ozil officially on 200k/wk the other 150k is paid to him as sign on fee. i’m not sure how true but i hope its true as that we even make the deal sweeter andmake the wage structure more stable.
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Big chance for the youngsters who have not gone out on loan to fill the gaps in the squad.
As for a new keeper Toni Horn all day long
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Sorry that should be Tino Horn bloody autotext
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I’d say anyone has to wait a few weeks until calling the result of the Transfer Window Cup Shard. I am more than satisfied with the players brought in, sorry to see Olivier and Sanchez depart, and quite pleased for Theo and Le Coq that thy will be playing regular football again.
If PEA and Mkhi hit the proverbial ground running and we start racking up goals again then that will be success, equally if Sanchez or OG manage the same feat at their respective new clubs they can equally be dubbed shrewd investments.
One minor advantage in both our signings, as we going to what will be a busy final three and a bit months is that PEA has had the advantage as a Bundesliga player of a Christmas break, and the Armenian has not played much football at all this season because of Jose’s Intransigence. I fancy if they are both fresher and less prone to fatigue injuries it may be important come April and May.
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New post is up
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