Morning Positive Goons,
Another thumping home victory on a Saturday, wholly deserved, and an appropriate conclusion to the 31 days of media fuelled hysteria we have recently passed through. Goodness me it seemed a long month, traumatic at times*. Amidst the noisy transfer turmoil some old playing components, some much loved, others less so, had been replaced by AW. We were hopeful that the apparent ‘upgrade’ would enhance our footballing performance quickly and decisively, but with Arsenal you just never, ever know.
In Everton we had opponent’s holding a respectable league position but suffering a shaky recent run. Historically the Toffee’s are easy meat (ouch), but historical record exists to be torn up and refashioned. They too had been adding quality. Even in this usually severe PA forum Mr Allardyce’s warm, reviving embrace of Theo raised a favourable murmur of approval. Aye it was an interesting prospect as the players emerged into the early evening downpour, for so many reasons.
The answer was almost immediate. The Arsenal engine purred into life in about three minutes from Mr Swarbrick’s opening whistle. We tore into the hapless blue crowd who were unlucky enough to find themselves in our way. Iwobi, Ozil and Mhki picked passes, moved and shimmied across the glistening turf, PEA lurked threateningly on the shoulder of the EFC back three. The first goal was pure Wengerball, triangle, triangle, triangle, side-foot, goal. The second was goal from the corner again demonstrated what precision delivery of the dead ball and hard work on the training ground can achieve. Our third, and the boy from Caerphilly’s second was what happens if you pin opposition in their box and keep battering them. Our fourth a combination of a tricky through ball, sharp £56 million worth of movement over 3 meters and poor eyesight. Setting aside the defective vision of the lino the chip over Pickford was excellent from Aubameyang.
The goals in the first half were the main course yesterday. Second half we clearly had eased off, and Fat Sam jiggled his resources a bit more effectively. I think we probably eased off a notch too much. Everton could have had 2-3 goals yesterday and I would not overlook both our centre backs who put in a hard afternoon. For the first game in a while I thought Hector was excellent yesterday, particularly in the first half, constantly available on the right hand side and when he had the ball using it early and accurately. Nacho off early again – “ill” I hear ? Nothing serious I trust.
Just as we had settled for another 4-1 however up stepped Aaron to snap up the Man of the Match award. How could it be otherwise ?
An interesting contest had turned into a very satisfactory result. We remain a little off the CL places but with every reason to be confident of making up ground over the next 2-3 weeks. And our Welshmanlikes Wembley.
Enjoy Sunday.
*I may have a touch of “Fenestraphobia” by the way, a morbid fear of windows, or possibly defenestraphobia, a fear of falling out of windows. (I thought you’d want to know).
Positively Arsenal 
The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, Ireland and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces (ready to be glazed or reglazed at a later date).
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At attack of Auba, Mkhi, Iwobi, Ramsey, Özil and the maligned Granit Xhaka… as the cool kids would say… Everton was never ready.
Arsenal has been derided over the course of this season but that performance is one that will make many sit up and take notice. The fight for CL qualification just got a lot interesting. And with Pep’s team disappearing in the distance, this will be the main talking point, ahead of the battle to escape relegation for those further down.
Good one Andrew.
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Thaks for the report Andy Nic: it would have been an exciting evening to be at New Highbury. I watched the game in solitary splendour on a gigantic TV, courtesy of the Runnymede Hotel where I took shelter while waiting for my boy’s cricket practice to finish – and very good I thought we were too. The problem with football like that is that it makes the oppo look as if they are not trying, so quickly do the one-touch passes pull defenders out of shape.
But, and it may have been the strangeness of the surroundings or slight guilt at having so flagrantly convinced the concierge that I was a VIP resident who deserved a whole lounge to be unlocked and made ready, it all felt slightly odd and not like watching my team. Perhaps it was the new faces, or Theo playing for the wrong team, or all the smiles and the joy that the players seemed to be sharing. Aaron was like a new signing (as he often does when he comes back into the team) and it was good to see the left wing suddenly becoming an area of real threat.
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My poor old scrotum finally recovered from Petr Cech’s air kick on Tuesday with some delightful play from both our home debut lads, Oz who still ran most things, Rambo and the rest of the team, in particular young Alex Iwobi who at last delivered. My beaten up hat shows definite chew marks. It did not taste good btw.
Mk had a dream start and joined a small number of gooners who have created 3 assists on one day. He, Oz and Auba may well sort out our season.Next a bit more practice on our home pitch.
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I’m so far behind I only found out yesterday that PEA had joined and Mesut had signed. I didn’t see the game until 3 this morning.
I’ve just read PG’s “Soft City” piece, (but not the comments, yet), and I want to thank George for that important, contextual and spot-on article.
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Was a very pleasant evening.
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My impression of PEA yesterday was not he was not quite 100% fit, a bit detached and holding himself in. Or is that just me ?
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What an absolutely glorious night. A word of caution though: just as it is dumb to go into any definitive conclusions after a one bad outing, so it is after one sensational performance. And sensational it was.
The encouraging thing here is that it played out exactly as expected. Sometimes, an XI of good individuals, even in a seemingly balanced side on paper simply do not gel as expected. Not the case last night – an XI of technically secure players with some pace to boot, playing Wengerball the way its meant to be played. As the understanding between the players grows… it bodes well for the future.
Just a quick word on the Aubameyang chance on the counter in the first half – as soon as Iwobi muscled off Keane near our corner flag, I was already off my seat. The thing I’ve been craving (and quite frankly, starved of) for a while now was inevitably coming next – give it to Mesut and then a pinpoint through ball into the path of that speed demon we now have at CF. Looking forward to seeing more of that, preferably starting next weekend against Spurs.
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It was indeed Steve and its always a pleasure to have you in my company. I’ve got to say Wengerball was absolutely flowing from the first minute and the roar from the crowd was back and the atmosphere ment there were plenty of wags (funny fans not wives and girlfriends) in the crowd making it an enjoyable afternoon allround.
After moaning about refs when we lose I think we should have a good moan about ol smallprick who really is a terrible ref and if I wasn’t bald already I would of pulled my hair out with the regularity of his inconsistency.
When ARSENAL play like this its impossible not to smile and so the 25 wobs that turned up to march before it was again cancelled, due to lack of numbers and interest and brain cells, must have been laughing and crying similtaneously which is no mean feat.
We met some great lads from SanFran who I recommended the site to and so we may have some new contributers with a bit of luck.
I thought Sead and Petre were badly at fault for the toffees goal until I see the move beforehand when Cech clearly was injured and thats why he couldn’t jump.
On improvements we need to make before the spud game I think Alex needs to be told he has the ability to carry the ball and as fantastic as Mezut is he doesn’t need to give it to him everytime. Granit Bhaka has also got to be given an injection of confidence so he can play the ball to our destructive players rather than the defenders all the time, His tracking opposing midfield runners is still poor and he seems to daydream more than me, maybe he just enjoys watching the ARSENAL. Everything I see from him suggest he loves the club and he is a really nice bloke so I really want him to suceed but on current form he is not player we need. I see George post some stats showing his passing rate but in reality he is not playing well.
Although I cant see us getting top four as we have to beat two clubs not just one and starting from a low base I do think we can have a very entertaining end to the season. Reasons to be cheerful 1,2,3.
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I forgot to say our new number 7 was MOTM and boy did we get the better end of the deal.
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AOB, I don’t think Xhaka’s confidence can be helped by the constant abuse and death threats he gets online. But I thought he had one of his better games yesterday. Where I think he is still struggling is with the pace of the PL. If he has time to pick out a pass he is excellent, but if he is rushed he panics and goes for the safety ball or gets robbed because he is taking too long to make a decision. He needs to develop that quality that fabregas had where he was aware of what was going on around him and seemed to know what pass he was going to make next before he had even received the ball. I also think Saed is suffering from the same thing and hopefully he will also get to grips with that sooner rather than later.
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It’s nights like that which make up for the games we do not show up for.
There are times when the simple enjoyment of seeing your team play such wonderful football, even for only one half, means that nothing else matters, to be honest.
We still need to reinforce the defence, tho I am disappointed that AW seems to be paving the way for young Holding to get the boot. There you have it, I make the comment that the defence needs improvement, but when it comes down to picking someone to receive the black spot — I hate to nominate someone.
And, given a choice between Jack and Granit, I would vote for Jack – but that means Xhaka is surplus to requirements — but …… see previous paragraph.
Back to the lip smacking 5 : 1 win — all the lads played well, with some goals that are only “made by Arsenal” and there is going to be more of the same to come — and yet …. being a perfectionist, or a miserable git …. I agree with Anicoll that Aubamalama looked slightly disengaged, despite his world class goal.
[ Note to self: First game — so stop bitching!! ] Large grin !
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big fat sam the tactical genius came up with a brilliant game plan, totally based on the Swansea V Arsenal game
So he was relying on Arsenal being under par in midfield and attack,for EFC to stop us scoring, and he was relying on us fecking up needlessly at the back for them to score. If anyone has ever wondered why the England national team has struggled to win anything for decades, just remember that Fat Sam was deemed good enough to be the England manager.
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I missed seeing our first two goals yesterday as they happened, due to the stream freezing, but fortunately the second stream I got to, had no commentators or pundits, just the sound of the crowd. It was wonderful, made the game all the more enjoyable, I really hope I have the luck to find this sort of stream for the rest of our games this season. None of the bullshit we normally have to put up with.
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passenal
GX took lot more ‘Looks’ (Where the player scans his surrondings) in the first half.
Lack of Press resistance and focus seems to be his problem .
Heard Raphael Honigstein say how his previous coach really had to ‘over’ coach him, actually stop sessions and tell Xhaka exactually where to stand upto the metre, then stand on the touchline and shout at him during games.
He is a talent , he needs to recognise all the instruction he has recieved throughout his formative years and put on the pitch .
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eduardo792
Absolute correct analysis of ‘Fat’ Sams tactics plan for the worst case, then attack that.
He really sells his what is it now 3 wins in 25 plus games against Mr Wenger.
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Mesut Ozil
Right now is only Arsenal ‘Best’ player, if he wants to be the ‘Technical Leader’ like Dennis Bergkamp he is going have fight Nacho Monreal for the position. Nacho does not look like he is ready to give it up.
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looks like PGMOL are ensuring that no Spurs players misses the NLD
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Passenal, I agree with most of what you said, only Fabregas special talent was his vision and then his ability to execute the pass. All good midfielders look over their shoulders before they receive the ball so they know how much time they have and essentially so they can let the ball run accross them so they can turn in one movement and face the game. Xhaka rarely seems to do this and so plays the negative ball very often.
The other problem is his tracking back (shit as i’m typing the spuds have scored) he switches off even when running back sometimes he just stops aned you just think why?
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best result for us, we are now 6pts behind LFC, and 4pts behind spurs, what is all this nonsense about us being out of the running for a top 4 slot.
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Yep, decent for us, but the PGMOL love Spurs, our players need to be aware of that
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I think our problem Ed, will be fixtures and traveling and of course making up the GD. If we do well in the Euros then games will come thick and fast. It will be even worse if some of our opponents do well in the F.A.cup as other games could be postponed and frankly there’s no room to fit them in
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that £75M defender liverpool have is a bit shit at defending, isn’t he.
as for the transformed Oxlade-Chamberlain chap, I’m really not sure how we got £40M for him
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ian we have a maximum of 20 games to play,
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Retrospective ban for diving for Kane or am I just being very silly?
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I’m afraid that is just wishful thinking Mandy.
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Think you are right, the dive twins are always going to get away with it, the media and PGMOL won’t go there, the refs out in Russia for the WC will though
Still, guess honours even in the media darling derby is fairly predictable.
Really hope we don’t get dancing Dean vs The Spuds
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Still salty that a freaking hat trick (from a midfielder!) is not enough to get you MOTM. Not getting over it any time soon, either. Has that happened before? Tell me if it has, please. It’ll make me feel better.
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imagine what Kane and Alli will be allowed to get away with next Saturday, in fact lets call a spade a spade, it won’t be being allowed to get away with, but more what they will actually be rewarded for doing.
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I fear for us as they are a team in their Managers image. Dirty cheating Argie style. Strange how all the bile is kept for an honest French chap who wants to play the right way eh. Something with Argies and Spuds going back to dear old Ozzie somehow. Really at a loss.
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Ed, that will be over 5 games a month but more to the point after a hard away game in Europe on a Thursday then maybe playing a tough away game in the prem on the Sunday will be difficult. Manure dropped many points in the final 10games last season. Also if the city or Leicester games are postponed because of F.A. cup commitments it will be a nightmare fitting them all in.
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I have written 5 blogs, using data to show how biased, and incompetent the PGMO officials are. Today was another red letter day as Jon Moss and his mafia crew awarded two phantom penalties to Tottenham without any regard to the principles of fair play. Now we have the vid an audio of how this turd, despite not being certain, decided to award a penalty to an offside, diving Harry Kane.
https://twitter.com/andrewpaulish88/status/960244531181555712
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what are the two officials touching their ear pieces for, is some other official instructing them or what
on the second penalty, video shows the linesman making a clenched fist gesture after its award as if celebrating the award, a la mike dean when he gifts spurs a goal.
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Tbf there, I’m pretty sure the issue was whether Lovren touched it, therefore meaning Kane wasn’t offside. But in that situation, I don’t know if the benefit of the doubt is supposed to go to Lovren (call offside unless you’re certain Lovren touched it) or Kane (dont’t call offside unless you’re certain he didn’t). But I’m standing by my assertion that Kane dived, anyway.
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Ivor Cannon
@ivorcannon
2h2 hours ago
Regardless of whether decisions today were right or not, there is absolutely no doubt that Spurs spend plenty of time learning these tricks in training
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We all see week in week out what Kane and DA are about, the refs must see the same, but do very little. Why give two penalties in a few minutes to known serial divers?
Ok DA booked for diving today. but that’s as far as it ever goes. Both should have been sent off against City, Kane should be retrospectively done for that dive today and banned, but as we know, it won’t happen.
If the refs, like the rest of us know what Spurs are now about, but do nothing, if the media choose not to highlight it, if a cheating team can go two seasons without a red card, if Clattenberg admits he could have sent players off but decided not to because of the ” theatre” and he didn’t want to be accused of stopping Spurs win the title, then we know there is something rotten to the core with the PGMOL. Cowardice, bias, submitting to powerful media influence,or something else?
Not complaining about a result that suits us, but worried about the refereeing we will get when we meet. I think we know what to expect.
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John Moss should be stood down after that. Like Mike Dean, Should he even be working at this level?
But as long as decisions go in favour of certain teams, and let’s face it, how often do key decisions go against Spurs, then everything is ok with the PGMOL , EPL and media.
The second penalty was soft, but Spurs players are trained to make the best of these situations
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Predictable, tomorrow’s newspapers generally shielding the world from Spurs cheating.
Lots of mentions of lovren, but no mention that Kane dived
The establishment need a plucky outsider to pretend there is now real competition for those who are doped and flout FFP, it seems Spurs are the the ” plucky ” of choice these days, and are allowed latitude.
Still, the result stands and suits Arsenal
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Saw a clip ,celebrating women’s football, last week which showed a player making a long run from about halfway, carrying on after a foul at start, then carrying on after a desperate lunge which made big contact, and nearly felled her, from last defender, regaining balance, and finishing nicely.
Struck a chord with me as it reminded me of the amateur football I played, in that it was quite a feature of that to hurdle a desperate tackle, or carry on when someone has fouled you but you are able to stay on feet. A skill in itself and, even though you might lose out in the end, real football to me.
Can actually make for a particular type of thrill, playing and watching. Think Cannigia’s running in world cup 90 before a Cameroonian finally took him out! A brilliant sight, marvellous skill from him. You only go down if you can’t stay up.
The premier league is not real football, nor I guess is any professional men’s football.
It’s elite footballers, excellent athletes, top skills, playing football, and endlessly looking to cheat.
Kane’s one with the goalkeeper. 99 times out of a hundred in training I’m sure he’d have no thought of going over there (unless it was a practice in that art) : his aim would be get touch and instantaneously position body to pursue that touch.
In professional women’s football I reckon it’d be same thing 8 or 9 times out of ten; same or a little higher in any amateur game.
Men’s professional football it must be the reverse- 8 or 9 times out of ten the only thought to get the touch and ensure contact with keeper before a theatrical dive.
Spurs it must be very nearly 10 out of 10 or a 100%.
I don’t see how any pro or ex pro couldn’t know that’s the truth about the game now.
There is zero chance Kane will be done for dive though, and as for that awful cheating rat Lamela…
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Maybe on what they are seeing, the PGMOL, if in doubt, stop giving things to Spurs all the time, a novel idea but if someone cheats so regularly,assume they are cheating all the time unless you have strong evidence to the contrary, rather than keep giving them the benefit of the doubt, to a level that is increasingly suspicious.
Or maybe Mossy and his linesman is just trying to help us get up to 4th, now wouldn’t that be a thing.
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Thank you Lance and Andy for the preview and review, well done! Great game yesterday, the first half was electric. Once the players gel, we’ll be hell to play against. If we can further tighten our défense, the victories will pile up.
I watched the end of the dive meet at Anfield, hard to think that this league is serious. The result suits us but what a joke. I wish Klopp grew a pair and said aloud what he thinks, biggest fine be damned. As for poch congratulating the refs, STFU! To gloat over seeing your players cheat and conning the refs is as poor a display of sportsmanship as I have seen, it’s beyond pathetic. This culture of cheating is a blight on the game. I hope we destroy them next week!
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“what are the two officials touching their ear pieces”
They’ve been doing it for years and years. We’ve noted it and you’ve all noticed it because it is:
Weird.
This is why they think they can get away with not doing what every other sport does, and communicate with a) participants and b) audiences.
Some of these officials should not be allowed near an online poker game let alone a sporting stadia.
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Shotts
Last home game there was a clear clump on Lacazette late on – easy call, no decision as we’d expect.
On Saturday there was an armlock around Auba late on, not nasty but am easier foul to call then was seen yesterday…
…it is: what it is.
I believe that Shotya have supplied the data to support these constant observations*. Thank you Shotts.
*the numbers are telling. Such as asking the question “who was the last CM to score a hat trick for the Arsenal”…Fabregas i’m guessing, when he could still run( a little)
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< arm lock round the neck
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“Theatre”
“Game management”
It really is a shame that all the plunditry is not on Salah’s goal or the Football but on the pgMOB officials chatting to their mates and trying and failing to hide the conversation. Not for the first time but that it is actually been noted and commentated upon by the media is an example of the kind of creep with the officials that AAndrew described that he expects to see. Bingo!
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< chatting to their mates, on the wireless = not to the lino's
The hand going to the earpiece. Or as it's known in the trade:
"Perfecting the art of Game Management"
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< I thought swarbrick did well to ignore the Everton shout but how could the officials between them miss a head lock when others are prepared to guess on…where Chambers' arm was?
It's blinking weird innit.
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redshark
Yep. Spurs are loathsome with their cheating.
Fins
Was the cameraman a Pool fan or something. I feel like they don’t normally get within range to pick up the conversation. Or tv chooses to use another view instead of touchline one right behind officials.
I actually thought Spurs antics may receive some attention this time, purely because of who they were playing, but a quick glance at headlines and media reaction suggested most were going with what a good game it was
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Folks I’m genuinely confused about the offside decision.
I was highly confident I understood that rule but apparently not. The linesman was ultra clear that it swung on whether or not Lovren touched it, and it’s hard to believe he could be wrong on that.
No idea how it has escaped me what the real rule is and very surprising it hasn’t cropped up anywhere before in all the games I’ve watched.
If linesman indeed right, the rule is quite stupid there. He’s offside; he benefited from being offside.
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